The End of Hope
by Tonight's The Night
Summary: Taking place shortly after Zuko and Katara speak in the Crystal Catacombs, this story opens with Zuko choosing to side with the Avatar against his sister. Rated M for mature content, including graphic violence and adult themes. Now COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

He had made his choice, in that split second after the flames had divided his sister and the water tribe girl, knowing what he might face if he lost.

Zuko looked between the warriors, his limbs locked in a fighting stance. After months of training and enduring everything life had thrown at him, he knew his firebending could be the deciding factor in this battle.

In one blinding fast motion, he sent a wall of fire toward Azula. His sister reacted with a counterstrike, her blue flames piercing the orange wall and deflecting the brunt of his attack. Behind her, half a dozen Dai Li agents shifted their attention toward him, each sending a fist made of rock in his direction. He blew the first few apart with a fire blast, then flung himself to the ground to avoid the others. As he went down, he swept his leg across the floor and let a wave of fire race toward his sister.

The waterbender was quick to take advantage of Azula's distraction. With twin canals running through this underground room, she had an ample supply of water to bend. In the split second Zuko looked at her, he noticed the steady, flowing movements unique to waterbending, and saw how she manipulated her element in the same way she manipulated her body. Pulling a torrent of water from the canal, she slid into her own fighting stance and let her arms guide the water toward Azula. Leaping over the wave of fire Zuko had shot at her, Azula was open to attack from any angle.

_She's not usually that unprepared, _he thought, unease pooling in his stomach. Something about the way Azula twisted as she jumped, the angle at which she turned . . . _Oh no . . . _he thought.

Brilliant azure flames tore free of her fists as she rolled in midair. The blinding flash reflected in the waterbender's eyes, and she lifted her arms to block the blast.

"No!" Zuko yelled, reaching out to the girl he couldn't touch. It was like the Agni-kai, like watching from the audience as half his face got scorched off, except the face was different.

The fire engulfed the waterbender, even as the clear liquid rushed from the streams to protect her. Steam rose and hissed from wherever the fire and water met, obscuring the battleground. An awful scream tore through the air.

"Katara!" the Avatar yelled, engulfed in his own battle. As he looked toward his burning companion, two of the Dai-Li's rock fists snatched his hands and pinned him down.

Zuko turned back to his sister, just now landing after her flip. Her bending was stronger than his, superior in every way. But maybe he could surprise her.

_I made my choice, _he thought, feeling the energy flow across his body. His uncle had taught him to redirect lightning when it had seemed like he would need it to face Azula, but to date, he had never been clearheaded enough to produce lightning on his own. The icy precision and focus of his sister had always been above his. Since she felt no shame, no remorse, she was always clearheaded enough to let loose a bolt of lightning.

_Uncle taught me to redirect lightning, but no one ever taught Azula. _

It flowed rapidly across his body, a great rush of energy-firebending in its purest form. When he lifted his arm up in the air, aiming it like a cannon toward his sister, a brilliant bolt of electricity shot out from his fingers.

Her hawk-like eyes flashed up, meeting his in the brief second before she was struck. And she smiled.

And he knew, before she ever moved, how the battle would end.

Her fingertips caught the bolt with perfect precision. For one second, her Earth Kingdom clothes turned white with the light, and her fierce eyes glimmered with an expression of victory. She moved the energy, still crackling as it followed the line of her arm, down to her stomach, avoiding the energy centers around her heart. When the bolt shot out of her other hand, it struck him so rapidly that he didn't have time to counter.

He felt one split second of agony, then everything went dark.

Katara

Katara woke, crumpled into a ball on a metal floor. The first thing she was aware of was the sharp pain all across her forearms. It was a pain she'd only experienced once-a short-lived agony from an honest mistake-but so unforgettable that she recognized it immediately. She'd been burned.

"Water," she murmured, moving her seared hands to the water pouch at her hip. When she found it missing, her eyes flashed open.

The floor tilted beneath her, so when she tried to sit up, she rolled over her burnt arms and had to stifle a scream. Her head listed with the metal floor beneath, and it took her several seconds to realize she was on a ship somewhere. _Water. I must be over water. _She tried reaching for the distant liquid, but as soon as she tried to move her arms in the patterns Master Pakku had taught her, she realized her wrists were chained together with a pair of Fire Nation handcuffs. A third chain, thinner than the others, connected the handcuffs to a metal collar around her neck. All the bindings restricted her arms. _I can't bend like this, _she realized, heart pounding.

She looked again at her burned arms, the thought repeating and growing in her head. _I can't bend. I can't heal myself. I can't get _out _of here. _

Panicking, she banged on the cold, steel walls with her unburned elbow. The burns were worse on her left side, going as high as her shoulder. On her right side, they weren't as bad. The canal water had come to her aid just in time to spare her a grizzly death, but not quick enough to win the battle. As she thought back to the events leading up to the searing burns, she thought of Aang. Had he escaped? Where would he be if he had? Would he be able to find her here, in this four-by-four cell? What about the others? Were Toph and Sokka okay? And Zuko? Had be been taken captive? Had he really joined their side, or had it all been an elaborate plan to capture the Avatar by feigning good intentions?

She banged on the walls some more, but after a few seconds, she stopped. Maybe it was better if no one knew she was awake. This was a Fire Nation ship, and from personal experience, she knew that most Fire Nation soldiers wouldn't mind leaving her a few more burns. _Or just killing me like they killed my mother. I'm not useful to them. If I seem like too much a threat down here, I'll be executed before we land. _

It didn't matter that she'd stopped hitting the walls. The distinct _clang _of metal armor was growing closer, accompanied with the softer sound of footsteps. She shrunk back in her cell, hoping to escape notice. The footsteps drew closer, and a Fire Nation soldier in one of the pointy red masks peered into her cell, his eyes obscured by his helmet. She stared back, trying to mask her terror with a look of defiance. She had always hated the Fire Nation, and that was the emotion she wanted to display now. But she had always feared them, too, and now she worried that some of that fear had leaked into her expression.

The guard made no move to speak to her or open the door. After a moment, he left.

When he was gone, she tried to think of another way to get out of this cell, or at least heal the burns on her arms. It occurred to her to work up a sweat and use the moisture to heal her injuries, but she rejected the idea just as quickly. Her tongue felt like sandpaper against the roof of her mouth, and her whole body was languid with dehydration. She couldn't risk losing any more body fluid when she didn't know when, or if, they'd give her something to drink. Besides, her bending would be almost useless if they didn't first free her hands from these chains-something she doubted they would do.

Nothing changed for the next several hours, and no means of escape occurred to her. There wasn't much to work with in the tiny cell, when she had no water to bend. She wished she'd had the foresight to learn some other means of attack before she'd been captured. Sokka would've been able to think of something. Unable to learn waterbending, Sokka had spent his life learning many other talents. He was a warrior, an inventor, a thinker. _But I'm not. I've become too reliant on my bending. _

After about six hours of sitting and thinking, she heard footsteps coming down the hall again. These were softer than the last. No rattling armor this time. She wondered who it might be, thinking it was someone from up above coming to visit Aang, wherever he was being held. In her hours of confinement, Katara had concluded that Aang had probably not escaped. The battle had gone sour faster than anyone could've predicted, and the Dai-Li were a fierce bunch of monsters. Even having more-or-less mastered three of the four elements, Aang wouldn't have slipped away without a miracle.

The footsteps were close now, and Katara wondered if Aang's cell was adjacent to hers. They wouldn't be coming down for her, would they?

A pair of eyes peered in through the barred window, and Katara flung herself against the opposite wall, rising to her feet for the first time since waking up. The face outside smirked. "So you _are_ awake," Azula said.

"Aang will stop you. You've got no chance against him."

"Oh, quite the opposite actually. Not that I'm worried about him showing up anytime soon."

The words resonated in her ears, but she couldn't pick apart the deeper meaning in the moment she had to think about it.

"I would be more worried about myself, though, if I were you. A water tribe peasant, and a girl to boot. My soldiers would love you."

Katara almost shuddered. Almost. "Let them try. I'll take them all down."

"With those chains? I think not. But it's your lucky day, I have something special planned for you."

"And what would that be?"

"You've been in a lot of different places, haven't you? Both poles, all over the Earth Kingdom, about a dozen other little villages along the way. I bet there are a lot of people who would demand your safety in captivity."

"If you're planning on using me as a bargaining chip-"

"Oh, don't be silly. I prefer the term 'diplomat.' You could negotiate a peace between the Fire Nation and your piddling little Water Tribes."

"Peace? All this death, all this war, and you would sue for _peace_? The other nations would never agree to that."

"They would if they thought it would end the war sooner. Let's face it, we're all tired of this battle. If the Fire Nation could find just a few allies in the Northern Water Tribe, we could conquer the Earth Kingdom, and the war would be over."

"Liar."

"You know, when Zuko was little, he would repeat this phrase to himself over and over. It went, "Azula always lies." Or something like that. But the fact was, I wasn't lying to him. I was just telling him things he didn't want to hear. But you'll want to hear this, peasant: the only chance your insignificant little tribe has to survive the comet is to form an alliance now. You'll be saving plenty of people. Isn't that what you've wanted?"

"Zuko was right. You always lie."

She lost her smile. "Well, here's the truth for you. The Avatar is a baby somewhere in the North Pole by now, so I hope you have a better means of escape than waiting around for your boyfriend to rescue you."

The words hit her like a punch to the gut. _She's lying. She must be lying. _It was impossible. Azula wouldn't have killed the Avatar, knowing he would be reborn into a new body. Unless she intended to slay the newborn before it ever learned to bend.

Azula grinned again at her reaction. "Well, I must be going. Princess stuff, you know. Now that I'm ensured a place as the next Fire Lord, I have duties to attend to."

_She must be lying, _Katara thought, as the princess left. But somewhere in her gut, doubt had formed, with sharp, clinging bristles.

Zuko

"Your grace," the guard greeted him when he delivered dumplings and spiced tea to Zuko's door.

"Where are the others?" he demanded. "What did Azula do with them?"

A flash of fear crossed the old man's face. "The princess commanded us not to divulge that information."

"And now the _prince_ is telling you otherwise."

Another spasm of fear flickered in his eyes. "Your Grace, It grieves me to say you've been marked as a traitor among the Fire Nation. A grievous mistake, I'm sure. There was a miscommunication in the battle-Azula must not have guessed your strategy. All this can be straightened out at a later date, but for now, you're forbidden any contact with the outside world."

The old man's eyes had kept flashing back to the door as he'd spoken, as if he feared being heard, even by the other prisoners. _Azula's making threats already, _Zuko thought, trying to come up with a plan. _Miscommunication, he said. But Azula would never believe me if I tried to tell her that. But maybe I could convince my father. _He shook his head to clear it. "Tell Azula I'm summoning her to my cell, and tell her there are important matters to discuss."

He hesitated, sweating a little. Zuko was only just realizing that his irritation was raising the temperature of the room. A heat mirage shimmered over the metal door.

"I will tell her, Your Grace," the guard finally said.

"See that you do." It had been three years since he'd been part of the Fire Nation royalty, but that seemed like something a crown prince would say. _It sounds like something Azula would say._

The man left, and Zuko heard the workings of the lock being latched on the other side. The prince sunk back into the silk sheets of his bed and stared at the Fire Nation banner hanging on the wall. It was as if Azula had left it there to shame him._ Don't you realize the Fire Nation is the winning side, Zu-zu? _she would've said. _Or has Uncle turned you traitor, too?_

At that, he would've thrown something at her, preferably something on fire. His temper ignited as easily as a candle, but it burned with as much control as a wildfire. He glared at the insignia on the wall, then stood up and walked over to it. His fingers coiled around the fabric-silk like his sheets, as befit a prince-and tore the flag off its hooks. The top of it ripped, the stitching unraveling with a hiss. The banner fluttered to the floor, and he kicked it aside.

The dumplings and tea were still sitting beside his door, where the guard had left them. He would've smeared them across the fallen banner, too, if he hadn't been so hungry. Instead, he sat and ate. The dumplings were bland, not as hot as he liked them, and after three years of drinking Iroh's tea, this brew was just atrocious. His raging thoughts didn't make it any easier.

_Katara took a direct hit. She's probably dead. But they wouldn't kill the Avatar-__he'd just be reincarnated. He's probably imprisoned somewhere on this ship. And the others, the blind girl and the guy with the boomerang . . . That could go either way. Dead, captured, maybe escaped. If they got out in time, there may be a chance. But if not, then I have to get everyone out. And that means taking down Azula._

He considered that. Azula had always been his father's favorite, the family prodigy. Defeating her would be no easy task, but if he could produce lightning one more time, without her redirecting it, he stood a chance. _If I took her on in an Agni-Kai. If I wasn't worried about the rest of the battle closing in around me. But even so, that's suicidal. _

His uncle had always criticized his tendency not to think things through, but down here, in the largest prison hold, he could do nothing but think. He'd tried firebending, when he'd first woken up, but the steel walls were too thick here to burn through. The metal had glowed red, and the room had warmed until he was covered in sweat, but he couldn't get out. Nothing else he tried worked, either.

Azula was quick to respond to his summons. She flitted through the door, light on her feet with a spark of amusement in her eyes. "You seem upset, Zuko. Are these accommodations not to your liking?"

"Where are the others?"

"Which others? It would help if you were a little more specific."

"The Avatar. The water tribe peasants."

"The Avatar is dead."

He blinked, his fury derailed. "What?"

"The airbender you've spent three years searching for. He's dead."

"You rotten liar."

"Not this time. Shot him with lightning. Tragic, really. I've heard that the Avatar doesn't reincarnate if you kill him in the Avatar State. No way to confirm that, but so the story goes."

"Liar . . ."

She shrugged. "Yes, 'Azula always lies,' you're thinking. There are times when that's been right. But not today. The little kid you pinned all your hopes on is a pile of ash somewhere in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se."

_Don't let her see you panic. _"It wasn't him I was pinning my hopes on. Actually, I was counting on your Dai-Li agents betraying you."

"That was a lie. Your left foot always pivots a few degrees when you lie."

_Damn you. _"Sure. I'm the liar."

"We'll take out the Water Tribes, just to be safe. No sense in letting a new Avatar grow up to master the elements. And then the Earth Kingdom will fall, and their Avatar will die. And then, Zu-zu, a new Avatar will be born into the Fire Nation, and taught our way of life. But by then, we will have won.

"As for the rest of them, the boomerang boy and the blind brat slipped away. We found the metal door of one of the transport boxes shredded open. The Dai-Li are investigating. The waterbender is in another of our cells, wearing herself out, and the Earth King is begging for his pet bear to join him in his cell. You and those two will be brought to the Fire Nation as war prisoners."

_Wonderful. _"And Father? When he finds out you sent the crown prince to the dark cells of the Fire Nation?"

"Zuko, I don't know if you noticed, but he burned off the left side of your face. He doesn't care about you."

"He cares about my position. That's why he sent me after the Avatar in the first place."

"You don't really believe that, do you?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. You should be able to tell if I'm telling the truth or not."

She grinned. "That was _almost_ clever. I may have use for you after all." She turned and swept out of the room, locking the door behind her. She said nothing of the red banner lying across the floor.

Katara

It must have been forty-eight hours since her capture before they gave her something to drink.

As a waterbender, she hadn't expected to receive any liquid at all. She'd done her best to wring some water vapor out of the air, as she and Aang had done a few times with the clouds, but there wasn't much moisture in the air this deep in the ship. In spite of all her bending, she was dehydrated and delirious by the time the guards brought her water. She drank it instead of bending it.

They had taken her out twice each day for bathroom breaks, and the most recent one had disturbed her with the distinct lack of fluid that came out. Once dehydration had begun to set in, her body had started holding in water. It wouldn't be enough to drink from the moisture in the air, and if they were only going to give her this little bit of water every forty-eight hours, things could only get worse.

They did. Another twenty-four hours went by, and she was given a small glass of water just as she began to wonder if they'd go through all the trouble of chaining her up just to let her die of dehydration. It would be too ironic for a waterbender mere meters away from the sea to die of thirst.

At the three day mark, her hunger began to outweigh her need for water.

By day four, she felt so weak that she didn't even try to stand up.

Day five, she alternated between sleeping, going to the bathroom, and staring at the wall.

Day six, Azula came to visit her. In her hands, she held a tray of dumplings and some savory sauce. Katara's mouth might have watered if she'd been a little less thirsty. "Aren't you looking well-rested," Azula said, staring at her through the half-open door.

Katara just glared, too weak to stand.

"We'll be arriving at port in two days. I thought it would be wise to feed you so you wouldn't pass out during the interrogation."

_Interrogation? _The word struck fear in her, and she felt as if the ship was sinking with her in it.

"Well, do you want the food or not?"

"Did you poison it?"

"Don't be stupid. The Fire Nation needs you alive. You _are _an ambassador for the Water Tribes now, aren't you?"

"Still playing at that, huh? I bet you're going to try and convince me Aang is really dead, too, aren't you?"

"I don't need to convince you. It's true."

"Zuko was right. You always lie."

Her lips crumpled into a frown. She dropped the tray at her feet and snatched the front of Katara's kimono, yanking her up from the ground. The blood rushed out of her head, and for a moment, she saw spots. "Don't you see, Katara? You can end this war decisively. All you need to do is get the Water Tribes on our side. We would strike in unison on the day of Sozin's Comet. The Earth Kingdom would shatter."

_It shattered when you took Ba Sing Se. _"Can't keep control of one capital city, Azula?"

"It's not the city, it's the rebellions springing up in the streets. The Fire Nation needs to crush the hopes of the Earth Kingdom. If the Water Tribes switching sides doesn't crush their hope to win the war, it just means we'll have to roast them when the comet comes. It's up to you. Get the Water Tribes to join the Fire Nation, or their ashes will be on your head." She let Katara's kimono slip through her fingers. "Eat. We'll be making you presentable tomorrow, before we land, so you'd best be ready to get up and move." She turned and slammed the metal door.

As soon as she was gone, Katara reached for the spilled dumplings and dipping sauce. Gran-gran would disapprove of her eating off a filthy prison floor, but her stomach had been empty so long that she didn't care. She scooped the saucy residue from the floor with her fingers and swallowed it all, even though the peppers burned her tongue.

_Tomorrow. I have to get out then, or I'll be trapped._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The Fire Nation silks flowed across her body like water.

Katara stared into the mirror, her face devoid of emotion. She couldn't crack now. If she faltered, she would shatter like thin ice over a pond.

Her new handmaids brushed her hair and tied it back in twin braids down the side of her head. The two joined into one at the base of her neck and hung down in a fine brown braid that reached her waist. A third handmaid was busy painting her nails bright red. This one muttered something about her cuticles, but Katara was too distracted to puzzle out her meaning.

_The ship lands in two hours. I have two hours to make a plan. _She winced as one of the girls working on her hair pulled the end of her braid tight.

"Sorry," the Fire Nation girl squeaked.

"Don't rip her hair out; she's an ambassador."

Azula stood by the door, her image reflected in the silver surface of the mirror as she spoke. Katara watched the reflected handmaid's face go pale, like milk, and saw Azula's smirk. "It's fine, don't worry about it," she told her handmaid.

The girl, no more than twelve and clad in the striking crimson of the Fire Nation, glanced up at her and then away. Her eyes looked like perfect circles, so wide and frightened they were. Her fingers continued their mechanical braiding.

Katara sighed. "I would have that meal you offered, Princess," she said to Azula, purposely making her voice meek and uncertain. If she played the role of the broken prisoner, perhaps the firebender would drop her guard.

"Yes. Mai, would you bring something down from the kitchens? We don't want our precious waterbender fainting."

_No, Yue forbid we let the waterbender starve, or suffer any debilitating injuries. _Her face didn't change at all in the mirror. Broken prisoners didn't rebel, didn't try to have thoughts of their own. She had to appear broken.

It was several minutes before Mai returned with a plate full of food. Katara recognized the fireflakes on the edge of the tray from the time Sokka had eaten them, but the rest was unfamiliar to her. She brought the foods to her lips, expecting the spicy bite to sear her tongue. _I will not react. I will appear broken._

The food was spicy, but not as intense as she'd expected. Even the fireflakes, with which Sokka had once scorched his taste buds, were not unbearable. She ate slowly and carefully, feeling the ship rock below her. As a waterbender, she felt more at ease over the open water. She wasn't sure what she would do when they reached port. _Fight, _she knew. _Die. _

"She looks really pretty in Fire Nation clothes, doesn't she, Azula?" Ty Lee gushed.

"I suppose so."

The terse response made Katara uneasy. Azula was all about manipulation and cunning・if she wasn't inclined to make some remark on Katara's dress, the waterbender assumed she was plotting something. _Plotting, always plotting. She's more strategic than Zuko ever was. _She wondered where Zuko was, or what he was doing. Perhaps Azula was keeping him prisoner somewhere else on the ship, though what prison could hold someone with enough firepower to melt steel, she could only guess. _I could ask, but Azula would probably lie. Maybe he's planning something, too. No. No, Zuko never thinks things through, that's silly._

"Bring her to one of the royal cells. We'll bring her out after we dock." Looking bored, Azula strode out into the hallway, followed by Ty Lee and Mai. Her handmaids and the guards Azula had appointed to watch her remained as Katara stood. Her head swam as she rose to her feet, her body still not fully recovered after her imprisonment. The guards chained her wrists together again and attached a third chain leading from her handcuffs to her collar. She hoped they wouldn't lead her out of the ship like this・it would impede her waterbending・but she knew they probably would.

This cell was not so pathetic as her previous cell. The bed was a welcome addition, and she would've liked the décor if it hadn't been covered by dozens of Fire Nation insignias. It was still a prison cell, but a comfortable one.

She laid down on the bed and closed her eyes. She would need to be well rested so she could swim away after she fought her way free.

It was a short nap. Her eyes snapped open when the abrupt shift in water currents made the ship list back and forth. Not five minutes later, a pair of Fire Nation soldiers came to her chamber and escorted her out. They took her to a massive, empty room, a level above where the prison cells had been. As she walked across the desolate chamber, the doors opened a second time behind her.

"I can find my own way around the ship," Zuko complained to the soldiers escorting him across the room. His wrists were bound in a similar fashion to hers, but he wore no collar. When he saw her, his single eyebrow shot up into his hairline. "You survived?"

"They took you prisoner?" _Well duh, they think he's a traitor. _

"What happened to the others?" Zuko asked.

Katara's heart sunk. She'd been hoping the prince of the Fire Nation would be privy to more sensitive information than a waterbender, even if he was a traitor. "I was hoping you would know."

His expression hardened. "Azula told me the Avatar was dead, but Azula is a liar."

"Mind your tongue, boy," one of the guards said.

"Mind yours, peasant."

Katara turned her attention to the metal floor as she shuffled over it. _She gave us the same story. She must've predicted Zuko and I would meet at some point, otherwise she would've given us two different stories. Azula is smart enough to think of that._

_ Unless she was telling the truth. _The thought came to her, unbidden and unwanted. She shook it off immediately. _No. She wouldn't dare kill the Avatar. He'd just be reincarnated. _

Ty Lee greeted them at the door, and Katara felt a rush of panic. Her encounters with the pink-loving performer had been brief, but more terrifying than most of the things she'd encountered on her journey here. _She took away my bending. She could leave me paralyzed all over again if I let her get too close. _

"Let me get those for you," Ty Lee said, a wide smile gracing her lips. A key appeared in her hand and she slipped it inside Katara's shackles. The iron restraints fell away and landed on the floor. Katara stared at her bare wrists, stunned. "We wouldn't want our Water Tribe ambassador to walk into the Fire Nation in chains. That would cause so much nasty gossip."

Katara just stared at her.

"Anyway, Azula said I'm supposed to personally escort you off the ship."

_So you can block my chi if I try to bend. _The words hung in the air, unsaid. Ty Lee smiled wider and cart-wheeled through the door, beckoning her. She stepped outside and winced at the glaring sunset.

"The Fire Nation is beautiful, you know," Ty Lee said as she flipped through the air. "We have pretty volcanoes, and pretty buildings, and even the prettiest clouds in the world. Look over there, by the sun, the clouds are all red and pink・"

Arms free, Katara pulled a torrent of water from the ocean around the ship and whipped it across the deck. Ty Lee reacted fast for having her head in the clouds. Her somersault carried her out of the water's path, and Katara had to redirect it toward the pair of Fire Nation soldiers running at her from within the ship.

A deafening crash shook the ship, and a flash of light blinded her for a moment. She turned toward the source of the lightning, fearing Azula had been lying in wait on deck somewhere, but when her eyes froze on the source of the lightning, she saw Zuko standing across the deck, arms extended in the direction of the lightning. _When did he learn that? _she wondered, but she had no time to think about it. There was only one sure escape for her now, and that was in the sea.

After spending so many moons traveling across the world and fighting her way through countless enemies, her body had grown lithe and powerful. Her legs carried her across the deck, her arms flailing as she moved the water below to rock the ship. The metal rig groaned beneath her, the chains tethering it to the dock protesting as the waves she drove a wall of water between the land and the edge of the boat.

Only a brief second had passed as she raced across the deck. Ty Lee's body still jerked and crackled with electricity, the smile gone from her normally chipper face. Her hair seemed to be afire, her braid a flaming rope trailing behind her. Her skin seemed to be smoking from the heat.

Katara hesitated.

Another bolt of lightning flashed across the skies and intercepted Zuko's blast. Ty Lee, her clothes and face charred by the intense heat, fell forward onto the deck, unconscious.

_She's your enemy, _Katara told herself, still unable to move her feet. _It's better if she dies. _

_ You're not that kind of person, Katara._ This voice sounded so much like Aang's that it immobilized her. _You would never turn your back on someone who needed your help, not even an enemy._

Another second passed as she stood, indecisive. Lightning continued to arc between Zuko and, standing atop the mast, Azula. She couldn't tell who was winning, or if Zuko could even hold his sister off long enough for her to get away. Wasting any more time thinking about saving Ty Lee was suicidal, stupid beyond comparison.

_You would never turn your back on someone who needed your help, _Aang insisted.

She turned back toward the girl in the blackened circus outfit and pulled another gush of water from the sea, using it to sweep another soldier off deck before she reached the eccentric girl. As she knelt, the water crawled up her arms and shone with the faint luminescence of healing energy. She placed one hand on Ty Lee's forehead, and one over her heart. The water spread back down her arm and enveloped the girl from toe to the top of her head. All at once, Katara felt her chi flow into the other girl, and for a moment, their bodies felt connected・one vast network of energy channels shared between the two of them. Katara let the water do its work, regenerating tissues as it sunk deeper into the girl's limp body. She watched the seared flesh mend and grow anew, and saw fresh pink skin form over the blackened sections of flesh.

In the span of a few seconds, it was done. She withdrew what was left of the water and let it cover her own body, an adaptable shield against attack. From the corner of her eye, she saw the brilliant flashes of lightning subside, giving way to the hazy glow of fire. She could distinguish between Zuko's fire and his sister's by color・blue fire was hotter than normal fire, and Azula had perfected that art before they'd ever met.

A blue fireball shot toward her even as she registered the difference between the siblings. She sent up a wall of water and changed it to ice, a transformation so basic to her now that she didn't consciously note the peculiar sensation of bending something solid instead of something liquid. The wall rose up to meet the fire, then hissed as they touched, steam rolling off the edge. Katara used her free arm to bend more water onto the deck. This she used to pull her into the ocean. Her wall gave way as her feet flew over the edge of the deck. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with air so she could stay under as long as possible.

The water here was warmer than the water in the South Pole, for which she was grateful. Her body slipped through the water's surface like a blade, and once she was under, her bending carried her deep enough to see the bottom of the ship. _Zuko's still onboard. If he's really on our side, I need to get him in the water._

She twisted and swam toward the boat's hull. Using both her arms and legs to bend, she formed several, massive spears of ice under the water and launched them toward the ship. They struck the thick steel on the bottom, leaving perforations in the hull where they hit. Water rushed in, vortexes forming as liquid rushed to fill the ship. Katara retreated, swimming with the speed of a waterbending master. She repeated the process further down, ripping massive holes in the other half of the boat as the first half started to sink.

The ship was sinking faster now, dozens of people flinging themselves off the rig to escape. Katara swam further out to sea, not daring to get close to shore in case Azula finished off Zuko. Once out of the shadow of the boat, she saw the bright flashes of fire above, red and blue taking turns dominating the air above.

_Air. I need air. _She swam toward the surface, fearing the fire, but forced upward by the sudden panic in her lungs. Even waterbenders needed to breathe.

Heat made the air shimmer, something she had attributed to the uneven surface of the water until the searing temperatures touched her face. Beyond the heat mirage, she saw Azula fling a sapphire fireball at Zuko, who countered with a ring of fire.

Katara took a deep breath and yelled up at him. "Zuko, jump down!"

He glanced down at her, surprised to see her pop up from the water. An instant too late, Katara realized she shouldn't have distracted him from his battle. Azula let loose an arc of flame with a kick. Zuko turned toward her, too late to stop the blast. It engulfed him, coating his skin like a cloak. He screamed, falling backwards with the movement of the deck.

It might have been luck that he fell in the water close to her. It might have been the holes she'd punched in the side of the ship making the whole thing list to the side. Either way, he landed in the water just a few feet from where she swam, his body burned all over by Azula's fire. She took one last breath and retreated under the water's surface.

The burns were severe, worse perhaps than Ty Lee's electrical burns had been. Nonetheless, Katara tried to heal him. With all the water of the ocean at her disposal, she didn't even need to bend a layer of water over his body before she started healing him. Once her hands found his seared chest, her chi followed the familiar networks required to rejuvenate tissue. As with Ty Lee, their energy intertwined and connected in ways she recognized on some deep, instinctual level. Her energy flowed into his body and back through hers, washing the pain away and restoring the cells that made up his body. She realized, as she probed through his energy channels, that she had never healed a firebender before. Everyone had different channels in their body, and the divisions between elements were more pronounced than they were between people of the same element. Zuko's energy paths were clear and vital, pulsing with an energy she'd seldom felt from another person.

His flesh knitted together and reformed, as Ty Lee's had a few minutes ago. The scar on his face remained, permanent and unchanging, but it didn't matter. As the ship crashed to the ocean floor, Katara pulled the unconscious firebender onto her back and swam for some faraway shore.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The orange lights flickered across the cave walls, dancing like spirits over the obsidian surface. _Fire, _he thought. _Have to get away from the fire._

He tried to move, but as he lifted his head, a bolt of pain shot down his body. A shadow stirred between him and the dancing flames, and he felt a pressure over his forehead. "Just stay down. You need rest."

His ears recognized the voice, but it took a few seconds for his mind to catch up. "Katara?"

"Yes. Sh. We have to stay quiet. I don't know if this island is inhabited."

"How did we get away?"

"There was an ocean. I'm a waterbender. I happen to be a very good swimmer."

He closed his eyes, sick of looking at the flames. "How did you get a fire started?"

"The old fashioned way. Two sticks and a lot of blisters."

"You should've waited for me to wake up."

She sighed, not responding to that. He heard her move toward the mouth of the cave, her footsteps light and quick. A moment later, separate from the rhythmic hiss of the sea outside, he heard water sloshing around. This sound came closer, until it was right above him.

"I healed most of the burns, but that lightning is twisting up your chi patterns. I think I can reverse it, as long as you take a break from the electricity."

"I need it to face Azula."

She didn't deny that. "It's going to be a while before we see her again, I think. I must've passed a dozen little islands before I found this place. Tomorrow, we'll need to be on the move again. Now hold still, this might hurt." Water flowed over the length of his body, soaking his pants and wrapping around his toes. A moment later, he felt a rush of energy flood into through him. His spine arched at the unfamiliar sensation, his fingers stretching out to full length in surprise. His eyes flew open, one wider than the other.

Beyond the layer of water, he heard Katara's muffled apologies.

Several seconds went by as the peculiar sensation pulsed through his body. In spite of years of firebending, he had never grown familiar with exactly where his chi paths were. With the healing energy coursing through him, he could trace exactly where each path lay in his body. They seemed to follow the major arteries, even twist around them in certain sections.

Another moment passed, and the water receded. "Sorry," Katara said, gathering the liquid between her hands. "Did that hurt?"

He shook his head and tried to sit up again. This time, he made it.

"I'm going fishing," Katara told him. "Don't go anywhere."

"Are you sure it's safe to go out on shore?"

"I'm sure we'll starve if we don't." Still bending the water, she walked out of the obsidian cave and onto the beach. He noticed she was still wearing the Fire Nation dress he'd seen her in on the ship. The fabric exposed her lower legs and a fair portion of her streamlined back. The moonlight made her dark skin shine.

It was less than five minutes before the waterbender returned, hands full of fish. Waterbenders made the best fishermen, according to every ship captain he'd ever met.

Half an hour later, they were eating.

"What happened to the ship?" Zuko asked. "Did it go down?"

"I only stuck around long enough to see the stern go under the water. The bay wasn't too deep, it might not have gone all the way down."

"And Azula?"

"Probably still alive. You just about killed Ty Lee, though."

He winced, remembering the stench of burning hair, choking and distinct. It resembled the smell of burning flesh, something he was much too familiar with. But it had been necessary. Ty Lee was his enemy now. _And Mai, too. _

"Listen, I know you're new to the whole 'good guy' thing," Katara said, biting into her second fish. "but we prefer not to brutally kill our enemies."

He glanced up at her. "I didn't want to kill her, but she would've hindered our escape."

Katara shook her head, her voice becoming sharper. "Remember when you used to come after us every other week, trying to capture Aang? How many times did he escape your ship? And how many of those times did he even seriously injure any of your crew?"

Zuko couldn't recall the airbender ever actually hurting a crewmember, but he had assumed that was because the Avatar wasn't supposed to hurt people. "It's hard to hurt someone with wind. It's easy to hurt someone with fire and lightning."

She was quiet for a few moments. "I healed her, before I got off the ship. I wasn't going to, but I did. She's my enemy. She can take away my bending with her chi blocking. But I couldn't let her die, no matter how dangerous she is."

Relief crashed through him like the waves that had helped sink the ship.

"You look . . . happy."

"It's better if she's alive. It was Azula's fault Ty Lee was there in the first place. I remember when she and Mai were little. Ty Lee would always take Azula's side, because she knew Azula always won. Maybe because, even then, she was afraid of Azula."

"Everyone's afraid of Azula."

"Probably true." He bit into his fish, deciding not to say anything more. In war, people got hurt, innocent and guilty alike. _Royalty or commoners, too, _he thought, lifting one hand to his scar.

Toph

"Based on the direction of the ship and the position of major Fire Nation ports, we can assume that Katara was taken to either the Fire Nation Capital or the Boiling Rock."

_Who knew the Fire Nation would have maps of where their prisons are? _Toph thought, glancing up at Sokka and wishing she could read the map he had been obsessing over for the past hour. "The Boiling Rock sounds promising." _It might even have rocks. _

"We'll need to take Appa across the Serpent's pass, and over the bulk of the Earth Kingdom. We'll also need supplies, but that might be difficult with Ba Sing Se under Fire Nation control."

"I can get us whatever we need. Just tell me what we're looking for."

"Food, first and foremost. Things that will keep during the journey. Maybe a better map, too, if you can find one."

"That'll be easy." _The food part, anyway._

Sokka's head turned in her direction. "Maybe you should let me - "

"I'm a master earthbender and the heiress to a wealthy earthbending family. I can manage a few supplies."

Her seismic sense was just sensitive enough for her to feel Sokka frown. He was quiet, though. The recent events had affected him more than he liked to show, and even now, she could feel the slight tremors in his body betraying his anxiety. "Yeah, I guess so," he finally said, turning back to Appa. The flying bison had patches of stiff, burnt fur from the fireballs Azula's soldiers had flung at him. Without Aang and Katara to fend off the attacks, the massive flaming missiles hit their mark too often. Once, their group had been almost invulnerable in the sky. For the longest time, she and Sokka had been the only ones without an advantage in the air. Now that they were the only ones left to take care of Appa, there was no safe place.

_I never liked flying, _Toph reflected. _But I could deal with it because we were safer up there than we were down here. _She didn't know if she could bear to climb onto the flying bison again, after their brutal escape from Ba Sing Se.

She left Sokka with Appa and headed down to the little Earth Kingdom village they'd flown to. If she focused, her seismic sense could stretch out for miles around and tell her where there were buildings or obstacles. Once she was on solid ground, it was easy to get a grip on her surroundings.

She made it to the village without anyone sneaking up on her. Though the buildings were, for the most part, dark and silent, she could feel the heartbeats and breathing of at least two hundred people. _Ba Sing Se has fallen, and the rest of the Earth Kingdom goes silent. _She thought about Gaoling, about the Bei-Fong estate, about her controlling parents and how they must be adjusting to the idea that the Earth Kingdom's strongest city had fallen. Earth Kingdom nobility, the loss of Ba Sing Se would strike them hard. And after what had happened to Aang . . .

She blinked, and wiped the tears off her face. Unlike Sokka, her blindness had kept her from actually seeing the damage. It was the first time in her life she'd been so relieved to be blind.

With the village being so silent, there was nothing to impede her seismic senses. She detected what seemed to be a marketplace on the edge of the village, and started walking toward it.

There were a few people here, all hiding. Fire Nation raids had devastated many villages, and most of them had hidey-holes for when soldiers did pass through. Toph could sense about a dozen merchants hiding beneath the countertops. She approached one that smelled of salt and smoked fish and knocked on the counter. "I know you're under there."

The man beneath the counter flinched, but didn't rise. _Yep, this village has definitely seen soldiers before. _She decided a demonstration would be more effective than an explanation, so she thrust her foot forward and made the earth slip away beneath the man. He slid across the floor, his hands reaching for anything that wasn't moving. Once he was clear of the counter, she stomped down with the same foot she'd used to slide the earth out from under him, and lifted him to her level.

"You're an earthbender!" the man - really more of a boy, she thought, from the higher pitch of his voice - said.

"The name's Toph Bei-Fong." She handed him the passport with her family name, the same one she'd used to get ferry tickets before their first trip through the Serpent's Pass. The boy looked down at the ticket and froze. "I've just escaped Ba Sing Se, and my group needs provisions."

"Bei-Fong? The noble family with the flying boars?"

If she hadn't known what would be expected of an heiress, she would've made some sarcastic remark. But she figured, since she was using the family name, she might as well act the part. Too much hinged on her ability to get provisions for the trip. "That's correct. I'll require however much preserved food you can spare."

"Of course," the boy said, running to the back of the stall and pulling several dried fish from their hooks. He wrapped them in paper for her. "Will you need help carrying them?"

The wrapped fish took both arms to carry, but Toph shook her head. It wasn't hard for people to guess she was blind. Though she could pick out the general placement of the face, looking into people's eyes was difficult for her when she couldn't pick out exactly where those eyes were. The offer seemed like pity to her. "I've got it. Here, this should cover everything." She handed him several coins, feeling them between her fingers to make sure they were the right kind. Each coin weighed a different amount, and the thickness differed between every one of them. It hadn't taken her long to learn the differences between them.

She started heading back to the small campsite Sokka had been setting up when she'd left. As she walked out of the village - still eerily silent - she detected a presence beyond the trees. She paused for a beat, then kept walking, moving a bit faster up the path. Once she was through the first layer of trees, she turned toward the presence. "I thought you might come this way."

"Many rivers flow through the land, but all lead to the sea," Iroh responded. "I apologize for not meeting you out in the open, but I fear the villagers have little love for Fire Nation generals."

She shrugged. "They just don't know you. Do you know what happened to your nephew?"

His face dropped to the ground. "He joined our side in the battle, but he was captured when we lost."

"Katara was captured, too."

He nodded. "I may know where they've been taken."

_Sokka will forget all about the food when he hears that, _she thought. "We've got a camp set up down the path. We'd better get going."

Zuko

There really wasn't much to pack when traveling through the Fire Nation on foot. Katara emptied out a coconut and filled it with water to bend, in the event that they had to travel inland. Zuko carried the robes Azula had sent to him for getting off the ship, and wore the rest.

"We'll have to swim most of the way," Katara said. "It'll go faster if you just hold on and let me bend the water around us."

He nodded, waves lapping up against his toes. They walked into the tropical waters, each glancing around for possible threats. There were ships in the distance, but these were made of wood, not steel. Fishing vessels or travel barges, he assumed. No firebender would travel on a boat that could so easily catch fire beneath them.

Once they were waist-deep in the ocean, Katara started swimming. "Wrap your arms around my waist and hold on tight. We'll be traveling fast."

He stepped forward and did as she asked. Her skin was smooth and a couple degrees cooler than his. The muscles around her shoulder were tough, muscles built by her bending. Her dark hair, falling free over her back for swimming, provided a cushion for his head.

The close contact felt strange. The only person he'd been close to in the past three years was his uncle, and even then, close contact was rare, reserved only for emotional moments. A week ago, if he'd tried to hold on to the waterbender like this, she would've frozen him to a wall.

Katara herself gave no indication of discomfort. "Take a deep breath whenever we surface. We won't be coming up often."

The waves pulled them under just as he took in air, and they were swimming. With every broad stroke of her arms, a rush of water propelled them through the sea. Zuko doubted even the quickest ships in the Fire Nation fleet could cross water this fast. They disrupted schools of fish as they flew through the water, and swam mere feet away from colorful coral reefs. Zuko clung close to Katara, knowing he wouldn't have time to get back to the surface for air if she left him behind.

Air was an issue, after all. By the time Katara thought to surface, he was beginning to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen. He had never enjoyed swimming in his younger years, and though he could hold his breath for a long time by Fire Nation standards, most waterbenders had the lung capacity of a Saber-tooth Moose-lion. If Katara decided to keep them down much longer, he would drown.

They broke the surface for a brief second, just long enough for him to gasp in a lungful of air. Then they were underwater again, and he had to hold his breath, clinging to Katara in the hopes that she wouldn't drown him.

By the time they stopped, they'd passed perhaps a dozen islands, and gone through about a hundred schools of fish. Zuko had panicked at the sight of a few tiger-sharks, but the striped predators hadn't followed them.

"Katara, can we stop?" Zuko asked when they surfaced.

"Not yet. We've got to put more distance between us and Azula." She took a deep breath and sunk back into the water. Sighing internally, he tightened his grip and went down with her.

They went down deeper, Katara's stamina sufficient to carry them miles in a fraction of the time it would've taken a boat. After an hour of diving had passed, she saw a boat on the surface, and paused long enough to let him really breathe for the first time in far too long. "Zuko, look. It's a boat."

"Yes, I've heard they're quite common on the water."

"It looks too small to be a fishing vessel. And that sail . . ." Her eyes narrowed as she glanced back to him. "I think it's a water tribe boat."

_A water tribe boat this far in Fire Nation waters? No, it's impossible . . . _"Katara, wait."

She either didn't hear, or pretended she hadn't. The waves crashed over them as the waterbender propelled them even faster through the sea. They didn't resurface until they reached the boat.

He let go, clinging to the edge of the modest vessel so he wouldn't have to rely on Katara to keep him afloat. The waterbender put both hands on the edge and hoisted herself up, a wide smile on her face. The grin died almost instantly as she climbed over the edge. Zuko followed.

The sail waved like a flag, the bottom ropes burned to pieces. Several broken arrows littered the floor of the craft, and a large splotch of blood told the story of the warriors who had ridden in this abandoned ship. Katara sunk to the floor, kneeling next to the dry, brown patch of blood. Her fingers picked up the closest thing in range - a knife made from the tooth of some great animal. She held the great curved thing, reading the water tribe symbol on the hilt. And all at once, she broke down, tears streaming down her wet face.

"Katara . . ." _Of course they were dead. No foreign vessel would survive so long in Fire Nation waters, especially not one so distinct. _He approached the crying girl, reaching for her hand. She jerked it away.

"Don't touch me."

"Katara, I'm on your side. You can trust me."

"Shut up! Just shut up . . ." A sob broke up her words. "This boat was from my dad's fleet. They were here, they must have been, the boat's still in tact."

He looked away, imagining the scene that had led the warriors to abandon their boat. The Fire Nation soldiers would've tried to set fire to the sails, only to miss them and burn the ropes binding it to the deck. Failing to start the ship afire, they would storm the small boat and throw the crew overboard, or kill them. There had been enough blood lost to claim a life, but whether the splotch of brown came from a firebender or a water tribe warrior, he couldn't tell.

"They must have fought valiantly," he said, hoping the words would console her.

"They're dead."

"I was taught that the most honorable way to die was in the defense of something you believed in."

"I was taught that surviving to fight another day was just as valiant as winning the first battle."

_My father believed differently. He would've sacrificed hundreds of troops if it could further his cause. _"Katara, I know you're upset, but -"

"The Fire Nation took my mother. This ship belonged to my father. It could be . . . It could be the ship he was sailing in . . ."

_It could be. _"How many ships did he have? He might have been sailing in some other ship."

She shook her head. "I don't want to hear it."

"But you need to hear it. There's no reason to think it was anyone you knew on this ship."

She shook her head. "Everyone knew the warriors who went off to fight."

_What am I supposed to say? _he wondered. _I don't know anything about her except what she told me in the catacombs. I don't know how to calm her. _He drew closer, risking her fury. Her face was pinched with sorrow, and every sob that escaped her was ragged and broken. He slid an arm around her shoulders and brought her to his chest. "Sh. Calm down. Everything's going to be okay, I promise." He rocked her back and forth, like his mother used to do when he'd been little. She sobbed into his shoulder, sounding so strained and vulnerable compared to the brave girl who'd faced Azula at the catacombs. He realized that it was only when facing her enemies that she was harsh and unforgiving. _Then she must've accepted that I'm not her enemy anymore. _He hugged her closer, feeling her heart beat against his shoulder. _So what are we? _


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Send for the Princess. Ty Lee is waking up."

The voices came from far away, muffled by the cotton in her ears and further distorted by the waves all around her. These impediments to her hearing didn't transfer over to her thoughts, however, all of which were centered around the last thing she remembered.

_When did he learn to shoot lightning? He was never able to before. Even Azula took years to master it . . . _Her body ached all over, her nervous system shot after the intense electrical currents. She remembered that awful smell as her skin burned and peeled, and how the pain was so sudden and overpowering that she couldn't even comprehend what was happening until she fell face-first onto the wooden deck. By all rights, she should've been crispy from head to toe.

_Something must have happened when I was asleep. Burns hurt more than this. _She remembered an incident in her early childhood, shortly after meeting Azula. The princess had lured her to the turtleduck pond with promises of a game. Ty Lee hadn't known until after the game had started that the object was to throw fireballs as close as possible to her face without burning her. Five years old and terrified, she'd stood frozen on the edge of the pod as the young firebenders whipped fireballs at her. Several had come very close, and Ty Lee had felt the sweat beading at the back of her neck. She remembered the confident stride Azula took from the sidelines when she took her fourth turn, remembered the total lack of emotion in her brown eyes. Ty Lee remembered the flash of fire, the instinctive fear that seized her, not for the first time during that game. She remembered closing her eyes.

She remembered feeling, for the barest fraction of a second, flames licking her cheeks before they swept by without harming her.

"You're a brave girl, Ty Lee," Azula had said afterward, flames dancing between her fingertips. Her fire had still been orange and yellow back then, not as refined as her deadly blue fire now. "I think we're going to be good friends."

More voices came through the foggy veil of her ears. "I was wondering when you'd wake up. This house is even more boring without you running around."

"Mai?" she asked, her voice cracking. 

The gloomy girl took a seat at her bedside. "I figured you'd be up soon."

A less eccentric person might have asked the story of how they'd survived such horrific injuries. Ty Lee asked, "Is my hair still burnt?"

"Azula commanded your handmaids to cut the burnt bits off. You don't want to look."

_My hair. She cut off all my hair. _She lifted her hand to where her soft, cinnamon-colored hair should've been, and felt coarse tufts of hair clinging to the smooth dome of her scalp. Her eyes started to fill with tears. As she opened her eyes wide enough to see her exposed arm, a sob broke in her throat. "My clothes. Where are my clothes?"

"They pretty much burnt up when the lightning hit you. Ty Lee・"

"Did Azula order _them _to be thrown overboard, too?"

Something like surprise flickered in the dark-haired girl's eyes. "There wasn't much left to throw overboard. And anyway, the boat sunk."

_Sunk? We made it to port, how could they possibly sink it?_ "How . . . Shouldn't I have burned to death?"

Mai opened her mouth as if to answer, but the rattle of the wooden door swinging open interrupted her. "Ty Lee, I'm so glad to see you awake and well," Azula said.

"You cut off my hair."

"Yes, well, the burnt bits looked rather . . . unsophisticated."

More tears budded in her eyes. Her brown hair had made her stand out in the Fire Nation・most families had sleek, black hair like Azula. If it had been anyone else besides Azula, Ty Lee would've jumped up from the bed and thrown them to the ground for cutting her hair.

But it _was _Azula, so she said nothing.

"Don't be too put out. I brought a gift for you."

"A gift?"

"Yes. Those things wrapped in shiny paper and distributed at parties. Here, take it." The princess handed her a box, about twice the length and width of her hand and a little thicker. She tilted the box away from her as she opened it, suspicious of Azula's generosity.

Contained within the box, nestled in a bundle of red tissue paper, was a piece of metal, sharply bent in the middle. The edges were as sharp as any of Mai's knives, and shinier than the rest of the weapon. The middle part that made up the bulk of the weapon was tinted blue, and had two holes carved in it.

"Sokka's boomerang . . . How did you find this?"

"You're not smiling Ty Lee. Don't you like it?"

_I thought they got away, _she thought, confused. "Of course I like it. I just thought the water tribe boy escaped with the blind girl."

"The Dai-Li managed to retrieve this after the battle. It was stuck half a foot into one of the catacomb walls."

Ty Lee stared at the fine water tribe weapon, a lump rising in her throat. Of their enemies, she had liked Sokka the most. He hadn't been reliant on any single form of attack, and even half-paralyzed, he remained an agile opponent. _And he's cute, too. _

"I was going to give it to Mai," Azula went on. "but she said it was too bulky to fit in her sleeves."

"Thank you for the gift, Azula."

She smiled. "Anything for you, Ty Lee. We are such great friends, after all."

"Yes. That's right." Her voice was thin and weak. Something about Azula reminded her of a sword with a broken hilt・every exchange with her, no matter how routine or simple, carried the risk of getting cut. "I'll be sure to make good use of this."

"Good. You'll have to show me what you can do with it, after you practice a bit." Azula turned, still grinning, and walked past a silent Mai and out the door.

"You really should smile when Azula gives you something," Mai said. "She is the princess, after all."

"Mai, can I ask you something?"

She shrugged. "Whatever."

"Before the ship sank, Zuko hit me with lightning . . ."

"You were wondering where he learned that?"

"No, actually. I was wondering why I'm not . . . you know, dead."

There was a beat of silence, and Ty Lee sensed something in the stoic girl that sent a shiver of fear down her spine. Of their group, Mai was the least likely to show any kind of emotion regardless of circumstance. But for a moment, just the barest fraction of a second, something like fear passed through the girl's eyes.

Her voice was unnaturally calm when she spoke. "The waterbender healed you. Apparently they can do that."

"But why?"

Mai shrugged, her eyes flickering to the door for just a moment. She stood up. "I've got to practice with my knives. I'll visit later on tonight." She slipped out the door, leaving Ty Lee to stare at her retreating figure.

Zuko

It had started to rain since they'd been on the boat. The first warm droplets of water splashed onto Zuko's scar, prompting him to look up at the bruised clouds. "We should find someplace out of the rain."

"I don't want to leave," Katara said.

"We can take the boat with us."

"I don't want the _boat_. I want to find my brother and Aang and Toph. I want to be flying out of here on Appa with Momo eating Leechi nuts on my shoulder."

He hadn't looked away from the darkening sky. The clouds were thick, darker than he would expect for this time of day. The sun was just setting, and he would've expected the clouds to look as if they were afire.

Another drop splattered on his face, and he lifted his thumb to wipe it away. His thumb came away smeared with black.

"There's soot in the raindrops. The Fire Nation is nearby."

It was amazing, how quickly those words changed the dynamic in the boat. Katara stood up, wiping the tears from her eyes and tilting her head upwards. Her lips parted slightly in shock as black water slipped down the side of her face. "You're right, we've got to go. Hold on to something."

He snatched one of the benches built into the ship and held on for dear life as Katara spun her arms in large circles. A wave rose from the placid surface of the water and the boat shot forward. Rain continued to fall onto the boat, but less frequently as they moved. Zuko glanced around, searching for Fire Nation ships. There were none in his line of sight, but he did see a plume of smoke float to toward the clouds from beyond one of the tiny islands dotting the seas of this region. _Most likely a ship, _he thought.

As they'd traveled, the space between islands had gradually increased. It was several minutes of furious bending before they caught sight of an island that wasn't spewing smoke, and another minute after that before they hit land. "We need to hide the boat," Katara said.

"We don't have time."

"I'm not losing this, too, not after I've lost so much." There were palm trees along the shore. Katara ran up to one and waved her arms like she was trying to bend it. Much to his surprise, the flexible tree trunk bowed under her guidance and the leaves covered the bow of the boat.

"The stern is exposed. We've got nothing to cover it with."

She glowered at him for just a moment, then dragged as surge of seawater onto the shore where the boat was docked. The vessel rose a few inches and slid further along the sandy beach, beyond the tree line. It still wasn't far enough.

"You're just not going to let it go, are you?" He ran across the sand to the next tropical trees and started ripping the giant leaves off their tops. Once his arms were overflowing with leaves, he returned to the boat and covered the distinctive water tribe markings with greenery. As he did so, he saw the distinctive hull of the Azula's ship poking out from beyond the nearest island. "Get in the boat."

Katara climbed over the edge and extended a hand to help him up. Together, they rolled into the boat and fell to the floor, breathing hard.

He looked over at her. "It's Azula's ship."

"It _would _be her ship."

"We have to stay quiet. The storm might make us harder to hear, but if Azula sees the boat, we're dead."

"I know."

"You seem awfully calm."

"Well, if she does happen to find us, we'll have another shot to kill her."

"I thought you and your friends were against killing."

"That's different. We can make an exception for Azula."

"If lightning couldn't kill her, I hardly think・"

"I thought you said to be quiet."

He closed his mouth and stared up at the palm leaves flapping above them. If any of Azula's men happened to see this abandoned watercraft, it was over.

The ship was close enough now for him to hear the shouts of the men on deck.

"The storm's getting worse. We won't be able to maneuver well with the waves."

"Should we change our course?" a younger voice asked.

_Turn, _Zuko thought. _Please, just turn away. _ He heard a rope snap somewhere on the deck, and the panic that followed.

"It's turning into a typhoon! Get the men below deck!"

Another rope snapped somewhere on deck. Zuko winced.

"Tell the captain we can't work like this!" another man yelled. The voices seemed a bit further away now. There was more shouting and panic, all increasingly muffled by the storm. Zuko listened, closing his eyes in an attempt to focus. After a while, he heard no more shouting.

"I think they're gone," he said, peering over the edge of the boat and pushing a leaf out of the way. The sea writhed with the storm, and streams of water flowed down every surface. Except for the boat they were laying in, there wasn't a ship in sight. "We've got to find shelter on this island."

"Why don't we just stay in the boat? There should be some room below deck. This boat is big enough."

He wondered who would try to build a room in a boat this small. Every ship he'd ever been on had been large enough to hold a house. This one looked barely big enough to hold a closet.

Katara sat up and crawled across the deck, her hands searching for something on the floor. She found a trapdoor near the edge of the deck. "C'mon, this should be big enough to hold us, and it's watertight."

Sighing, he headed toward the trapdoor as Katara jumped into the small room.

Though cramped, the room had all the amenities of a small apartment. There were cupboards filled with food, and a stove over which kindling could be lit on fire and used for cooking. A padded bench was built into the wall, though he could only guess the padding was the skin of some blubbery animal from the South Pole.

"They have sea prunes," Katara said, smiling. "I can make sea prune stew." She pulled a pot out of one of the cupboards and filled it with water from another cupboard. "Spark rocks . . . Where would they put spark rocks?"

Zuko sighed. "I happen to be able to shoot fire out of my hands, you know."

She glanced up, then away, blushing. "I forgot."

He stood up and walked over to the stove, running his hand over the kindling. It burst into flames where he touched it.

Katara stared at the budding fire, bemused by the dancing fingers of flame.

"What?"

"Nothing." She resumed her food preparations, adding various, unidentifiable ingredients to the pot before placing it over the fire. "Can you hand me that seaweed hanging on the wall? It needs to be washed before I add it to the stew."

He handed her the limp weeds and watched her wash them over a tiny sink, silent.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Not exactly . . . I mean, I guess I knew firebending had mundane purposes, too. I just never expected to see it put to use for such simple tasks."

"You thought firebending only caused pain and destruction," he guessed, lifting a hand to a scar. The rough texture was familiar to him after three years. "You're mostly right."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"Don't be. I know what you think of the Fire Nation." He turned away. _Everybody hates the Fire Nation, after all. _"I'm going to check out the other rooms."

There was a door that attached the kitchenette to the sleeping quarters. There were four bunk beds, each covered in the crumpled blankets of the men who'd sailed in this ship before they had to abandon it. With a twinge of guilt, Zuko moved the blankets off the least cluttered bed and lied down on the leathery mattress. _If the crown prince hates the Fire Nation, how can anyone else be expected to like it? How can I bring down my father without being labeled as a traitor? _He closed his eyes and touched his scar again. _How can I ever face my people wearing this scar?_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"The stew is ready, if you want to come out and eat. It looks like it'll be raining all night, so we've got nothing better to do."

Zuko looked at the waterbender, seeing the steaming bowl of sea prune stew in her hands. He hadn't eaten since Katara had gone fishing back at the cave, and his stomach yearned for nourishment. "Coming."

"Sorry if it's not spicy enough," she said as he entered the kitchen, handing him a bowl. "The water tribes don't have the kinds of spices you use in the Fire Nation."

He sat down on the bench and sipped at the stew. The unfamiliar textures slid across his tongue, but the stew tasted nice despite the sweet undertones. "It's not bad."

Katara sat next to him and started eating. "My gran-gran taught me how to make this after my mom was killed. She said my mom's recipe was even better than hers."

"Oh." He couldn't think of anything else to say, but Katara didn't seem to need a response.

"I was so young when I lost her, but I remember the day the Fire Nation attacked so clearly. I still remember the face of the man who killed her. He was old for a Fire Nation captain, like he should've been retired already. And the ship had banners with sea ravens on them instead of the Fire Nation insignia."

Zuko looked up at her sharply. "Sea ravens?"

"Yeah. Their helmets looked a bit like sea ravens, too."

His thoughts were racing by, faster than they had in weeks. It had only been three years since his banishment, but he remembered the various banners of the smaller squads of Fire Nation warriors from his time in school. _The sea raven . . . That banner belonged to the Southern Raiders. _"And these people - they're the one's who killed your mother?"

"Yes. They were after the last waterbender in our village. They didn't realize it was me."

"I know that banner. It was the Southern Raiders. They sport the sea raven as their sigil."

She almost spilled her stew as she shot to her feet. "That means we can find them, right? You must know where they're stationed."

"No. But I know where we can find out." _Some tavern, or maybe I can buy the information off the Black Market. _"We'll wait out this storm, then find out the location of their last known base."

"We don't have to wait. I'm a waterbender, remember? I can bend the seas in our favor. We could be somewhere else in just a few days, and we can put more distance between us and Azula·"

"Katara, listen to me. I know you want to find the man who killed your mother, but unless you can stay up for three nights straight, while waterbending, I don't think - "

"I can do it. Please, Zuko, you have to take me."

His name sounded odd coming from her mouth, and she mistook his surprise for indecision.

"You know this is the right thing to do. It'll be easier if we go together to find them."

He sighed. "That storm is getting stronger by the hour. For all we know, it could turn into a hurricane. This boat can't take those kinds of conditions."

"It can, too."

"I'm not taking you out there until the storm subsides."

"This is the most important thing I could ever possibly do in my life. Why would I risk losing this chance because of a stupid storm?"

He crossed his arms, being careful not to spill his sea prune stew. "I'm not taking you."

She huffed, her arms rigid with anger. "Fine. I'll go looking for them myself, so if you want me to have any idea where I'm going, tell me now, because I'd love to hear it."

"I'm not telling you anything until the storm is over."

"You're more stubborn than Toph." She swallowed the last of her sea prune stew. "Back in the catacombs, you said the Fire Nation had taken your mother away from you, too. I thought you would understand."

That stung. The Prince Zuko of a year ago would've lost his temper. But he had learned in these past few months, enough to restrain himself.

He set his half-empty bowl of sea prunes on the countertop and turned back to Katara. "Do you think that I'm so heartless that I would keep you from doing your justice? Do you think I wouldn't love to kill my father for having my mother banished? That it doesn't bother me at all, the fact that she might still be out there somewhere, and I still might never see her again? That I don't still dream about her when I fall asleep?" His voice was becoming strained, and he felt something shaking apart as the waterbender stared at him. He turned away. "Because you'd be wrong."

"Zuko . . ."

"I'm going to bed." Not looking at her, he stalked over to the door and reached for the handle. Katara caught his wrist and pulled it back.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I really didn't mean that the way it came out."

Her hands were soft and delicate, in spite of her hardships. He remembered the feeling of her hands on his body when she'd been healing them, but this was distinctly different. Healing hands were gentle, but also professional and distant. The way she was holding his wrist felt too intimate, almost as if she holding his hand instead. He pulled his arm away and walked through the door. "We'll go after the storm clears." He shut the door behind him.

With the percussive tap of rain on the deck above, all other sounds faded from earshot. As Zuko lay on the lumpy mattress, his thoughts murmured restlessly.

_It's different for her. She knows there's no hope to ever see her mother again, but mine is still out there somewhere, probably somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. Her mother is years dead. _He closed his eyes, thinking of the last time he'd seen his mother, the night before she was banished. _She may not even be alive after so long. No one in the Earth Kingdom would take kindly to a visit from the Fire Lady, and alleged traitors aren't smiled upon anywhere. _It was a notion he'd been forced to entertain in the years since her banishment. His mother might still be wandering somewhere outside the Fire Nation, or she might have been taken out by enemy assassins.

_Or my father's own men, _he thought, not for the first time in his life. Supposedly, there had once been love between his parents, but between Azula's monstrous tendencies, an escalating war, and the eventual banishment, his family had been broken beyond repair. Truthfully, he wouldn't be surprised if the Fire Lord had sent assassins after his banished wife to tie up loose ends. Horrified, yes. Sickened, certainly. But not surprised.

Outside, thunder exploded through the air. Zuko sat up, heart racing. Then his face reddened. _It's the storm, stupid. Even Azula wouldn't be crazy enough to brave this kind of weather. _

Rain continued to pound onto the deck above, even harder than before. He listened for another peal of the thunder, pressing his sensitive ear against the wall to amplify the sound. He waited several minutes, but there wasn't another bolt. There was no sound at all except the rain.

Not a single sound. Not even Katara's movements in the other room. "You've got to be kidding me," he murmured to himself, jumping to his feet.

When he walked into the kitchenette, Katara was gone.

"Just once. Just once, I would like to get through one catastrophe without the universe conspiring against me."

The universe answered with another peal of thunder. He walked to the stairs leading above deck and peeked his head outside. Water poured in from the trapdoor as he looked around, but he saw no sign of the waterbender out at sea. Above him, a blinding flash illuminated the sky. _Not Azula, then. I suppose that increases our survival rate by a good ninety percent. _He climbed through the trapdoor and shut it behind him, the heavy rain soaking through his shirt even in the few seconds he'd been out. He looked out to the sea again, hoping to catch a glimpse of her, riding the waves. He saw nothing that might indicate that the water was moving in an unnatural pattern.

_Where are you Katara? _he wondered, abandoning the boat to head toward the center of the island.

Sokka

"We can infiltrate the cove through this tiny channel to the east. From there, we cut across the peninsula and walk into the bay. We'll be in disguise, so we should be able to walk in without much trouble." Sokka looked up from the map and, one by one, met everybody's eyes. Toph gave no indication she saw him, as expected. Iroh sipped at his tea. The warriors of the water tribe each nodded. Sokka had run across their group as they'd flown over one of the archipelagos extending out from the Fire Nation, and they'd come down to investigate. Sokka had recognized some of them as the men who'd left the Southern Water Tribe so many years ago. They were from his dad's fleet, and their boat had been overrun by a Fire Nation vessel, and they'd been forced to abandon ship and swim to the nearest island.

"We're lucky you found us," the captain of the boat had told him. "Fire Nation ships were passing by every day. It was only a matter of time before one of them saw us."

"Was my dad on the boat?" he'd asked, trying to keep the hope out of his voice. The universe had a habit of proving him wrong, and he didn't want to tempt the spirits by holding out too much hope.

"I'm afraid not. We broke off from the main fleet to do some scouting. Hakoda's probably expecting us back soon, but finding your sister is of primary importance."

That had pretty much said it all. Sokka guessed their quick agreement to go searching for Katara stemmed from the fact that she was the chief's daughter, not because they considered her important to the mission. But he had kept those thoughts to himself, not wanting to stir up trouble among his own people when there was a war to fight.

So, after he had met everyone's eyes around the discussion table, he asked if anyone had anything to add to the rescue plan.

"What if she's not there?" one of the warriors asked.

_Then I've wasted two weeks flying here. _"Then we'll do a supply raid on the Fire Nation," he said, making up a plan as he went. "Whatever we find there, we'll leave with more than we went in with. If we can, we'll commandeer a ship and disguise ourselves as Fire Nation to get through the borders and back to relative safety."

The speaker nodded, and Iroh set down his tea. "Are you certain it is wise to leave Fire Nation borders in one of their own ships? The other nations may see you as an enemy when they see your banners, and if your subterfuge is discovered, you will have the Fire Nation after you, as well."

"He's got a point, Sokka," Toph said. "I can't see, but I do know that, out of all the people here, only one of us looks remotely Fire Nation, and he's a known traitor. Even with the right boat, we don't look the part to pass any Fire Nation examinations, let alone the kind that would get us out of Fire Nation waters."

He nodded, considering that. "A flying bison is more conspicuous, but you're probably right. Iroh, are there any waterways leading out of the Fire Nation that aren't likely to be blocked?"

He sipped at his tea again. "There may be one path, but I fear you may not like it. The way is treacherous even for a skilled sailor, and maneuvering a full-sized ship would be almost impossible."

"What about a smaller ship? Not a naval ship, but maybe a luxury cruiser?"

Iroh thought about that for a moment. "Perhaps. That would be easier to slip through the barriers, as well. Yes, I think that could work."

Sokka nodded to himself. "Then that's what we'll do. Any other questions?"

There were none. Sokka plucked the pebbles he'd been using to mark their location off the map and folded the piece of paper so it fit in with their belongings. "We fly to our starting location first thing tomorrow morning."

The warriors all murmured words of agreement, and even Momo chattered as if he understood.

As everyone dispersed, Toph approached. "You tensed up when that guy said Katara might not be there," she said.

"So?"

"He has a point. What if she's gone already? What if she was never there in the first place? Will you keep looking for her, when you don't know where else she might be?"

"Of course I will. She's my _sister_. I was supposed to watch out for her."

"And now she's a waterbending master. If there's a way out, she'll find it and come back to us. But there are more important things going on in the world right now. After what happened to Aang . . . Who's going to fight the Fire Lord? Not you. Probably not me, either, since I wouldn't be able to see the flames coming. If Katara and I teamed up, _and _we had surprise on our side, _maybe _we could win. But frankly, I don't see this working out without an Avatar."

_Katara would be making some rousing speech about hope right now, _Sokka thought, frowning. "We'll think of something. The Day of Black Sun is still ahead of us, even if we don't have the Avatar."

"And if the invasion plan fails?"

He sighed. "It won't fail. There's too much riding on it. And _I'm _supposed to be the pessimist, here."

She shrugged. "Whatever you say, Sokka."

He watched her go, paranoia coiling up in his stomach. All the water tribe warriors thought his invasion plan would work. Even Iroh, who knew the Fire Nation better than anyone here, thought it stood a chance.

_But what if it _does _fail? What if we get stuck behind enemy lines, or taken as prisoners? I just barely got to see my dad before Ba Sing Se fell. I may never see him again. _He shook his head. _No. I can't think about that. Their firebending will be useless, the plan has to work. Even without Aang or Katara . . . Even if everyone's lost hope without the Avatar. _

_Even if it costs me everything._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

The liquid dome rotated above her head, swollen with water from the storm.

Zuko watched the waterbender move with the suspended liquid, analyzing her movements. He already knew waterbending was all about redirecting the flow of energy・his uncle's lightning redirection technique had been based off the movements of waterbenders he'd studied.

Now Zuko was the observer, trying to pick up on the subtleties of Katara's element. He had found her・finally, after searching the whole island for any sign that she was still there and not out in the storm looking for her mother's killers・just as he was about to give in and return to the boat to dry his clothes. She hadn't seen him yet, too occupied by her bending to watch for potential threats. Of course, he was taking care not to be seen, hiding in the massive leaves of one of the palm trees. He knew Katara was, on some level, still wary of him・their few days together hadn't proven his loyalty to her, and she was being careful not to share anything that might aid him later if he decided to betray her.

She turned, her arms circling in wide arcs around her, and the dome collapsed into a waterspout, spinning around her much faster than her arms had moved. With a fluid motion, she brought the funnel down and sent a wave in every direction, freezing it so the water formed into glorious ripples of ice. Zuko thought about how he could turn that into a firebending move.

There she stood, several seconds ticking by as rain poured down and melted the ice. He continued to watch, curious.

Her next movement came so swiftly that Zuko barely had time to process it. Her arms shot forward, as if striking at an enemy at close range. The abrupt movement seemed at odds with the defensive style she usually used, more like firebending than waterbending. The ice in her path turned back into water, spraying out of the ripples of ice with the force of a waterfall. When it hit a nearby palm, the ground below gave way and the towering tree flew until the trunk slammed into another, thicker tree.

_Maybe I should get down from here, _he thought, his hands tightening around the palm leaves. Before he could, though, Katara unfroze the ice and let the water flow around her in shifting ribbons. She jabbed her hand forward, fingers pointed out like the tip of a spear, and sent icy daggers in the direction she moved. The spires struck the trunk of another tree, sinking six inches deep before finally stopping. _She's not afraid to attack, at least, _he thought, fascinated as she repeated the same move several times, striking tree trunks as if they were armored enemies. On the tenth try, three spires hit the base of the tree where he'd climbed up. He flinched, leaning back and losing his grip on the flexible tree.

His movement caught her eye, and she let loose a cannon of water in his direction. It hit him like a cannon, and blew him from the tree like a bug. He flung his arms out to the side, preparing for the brunt of the impact.

His body never hit the ground. A rush of water rose up to meet him as he fell, slowing his descent. He was going so slowly that, by the time his feet touched the ground, he was in no danger of injury.

"How long have you been watching me?" Katara demanded, fury on her tongue.

Zuko brushed his soaked mop of hair away from his face. _Her first instinct is to attack. Defense is secondary to her. Just like a firebender. _"A few minutes."

Surprise flickered across her face. "That long?"

"I thought you'd gone out into the storm. And I was right."

The anger returned in force. "I can make my own decisions, and I'm perfectly capable of defending myself."

"Katara, if it took you that long to notice me, you're not going to see an enemy coming until they've trapped you. What if I had been Azula? You'd be dead."

"I would not. And, anyway, I was just practicing. It's not like I was doing anything dangerous."

He sighed and sat down on the wet dirt. "Look, I know you seem to be tolerating my existence right now, but if you get yourself killed or captured while I'm with you, your friends are going to think I did it. And then Aang will have no firebending teacher, and you'll be . . . you know, dead. The fact is, I need you to have any hoping of joining your group, and I would really appreciate it if you would try to keep a low profile while we're being hunted."

Her eyebrows slanted down in sharp lines as she crossed her arms. "So I'm just your peace offering to the Avatar."

He blanched. "I didn't mean it like that."

"So what did you mean?"

_Oh, crap, that's exactly what it sounded like. Okay, think . . . Think of something . . . _"What I meant was . . . We both have reasons to get back to them, so we might as well combine our strengths and find them together."

"You _did _mean it, then."

_Oh for Agni's sake. _"Yes, I meant it. But you must see the sense in what I'm thinking."

She did. She must have, because she didn't argue. Once a long silence had crept by, Zuko changed the subject.

"You fight like a firebender."

"_What_?"

"I mean that as a compliment. You're not afraid to strike, even when your element dictates that you should defend. You're a little like the dragons. They're all extinct now, but the stories said that their first instinct was always to attack. If you'd been born a firebender, you'd be a good one."

"Well, I wasn't. I'm a waterbender, and my mother sacrificed herself so I could be one."

Everything jumped into clarity for him. _Of course. That's why she traveled so far with the Avatar. That's why she went out to practice in the middle of this storm. It must have hurt so much, being a waterbenders and not knowing how to bend for the longest time. She wanted to be worthy of her mother's sacrifice. _It would never be enough, he knew. Katara must have loved her mother dearly to still be so affected by the loss. No amount of devotion to her waterbending would be enough for Katara, no matter how proud her mother would've been, or how great a waterbending master she became. _And she knows it. No wonder she wants revenge so badly. She just wants that part of her life to be over. _"I understand."

"Understand what?"

He looked up at the bruised sky. "We'll leave for the mainland tomorrow. The coastal cities are likely to have information regarding the Southern Raiders."

Her face went blank. "Really? We're going?"

"Yes. We're going. Tomorrow. And right now, I'm going back to the boat to dry my clothes."

"I'm coming, too. You've got nothing else to wear. I'll have to bend the water out of your clothes."

_I guess there's a mundane purpose for every element, _he thought as she skipped up to his side, happy for the first time in weeks.

Ty Lee

Only someone who'd known Azula as long as she had would be able to see the tension in her shoulders. Ty Lee watched the firebender do her morning routine in the courtyard, noting the hardened muscles legs, the slight shift in the angle of her arms, the tightness in her stance. _Too rigid. She's going to hurt herself. _She shook off the thought. Azula was too good, her control too precise. She would never be so careless.

The firebender's arms moved in graceful circles, her fingertips crackling with electricity. With the clouds blocking out the sun and the constant downpour making everything in the vicinity sodden and grim, the lightning flashing from her fingertips seemed especially bright.

"She's like the storm," Ty Lee muttered, watching the princess with a frown on her face. Ever since she'd woken up without her hair and clothes, staying upbeat had become almost impossible, no matter how strange the frown felt on her face. "A hurricane that can't be fought, only endured."

"You're not usually so depressed."

She glanced up, startled by Mai's sudden entrance. "Hi, Mai."

The emotionless girl stared at her for a moment, bemused by her lack of spirit.

"I was just thinking," Ty Lee said, trying to break up the awkwardness of the moment. "Azula's aura looks awfully dark today. Do you think she's still upset about Zuko's escape?"

Mai shrugged. "Who knows?"

On the ground below, Azula shot another bolt of lightning into the sky. The clouds answered with a flash of their own.

Ty Lee looked down at the boomerang in her lap, tracing the smooth weapon with her fingertip. The shiny steel reflected her face back at her, a dispiriting sight. What was left of her hair stuck out in tufts between the bald spots, and the sides of her hair were so uneven that, when she'd first seen them, she'd genuinely considered shaving herself bald and letting it grow back the right way. She'd even stared at herself in the mirror, razor in hand, for half and hour before she realized she was incapable of losing this last little bit of hair. _She cut my hair. Why would she cut my hair? She knew how much I loved it. _Her fingers tightened around the boomerang, the sharp edge poking against her skin. _And my clothes. I'm wearing brown. Plain, boring, ugly brown. I should be wearing pink. _

"Ty Lee, your hand is bleeding."

She looked down at her hand, shocked to see the thin line of red along her palm. Sokka's boomerang glistened with red on the edges.

Ty Lee started to cry.

_Stupid. So stupid. Azula should have never . . . Never . . . _Her sobs overshadowed Mai's quiet comforts behind her. _She should have gotten me clothes. What was I supposed to do with a stupid boomerang? I don't even know how to throw the damned thing. _Even in her thoughts, she was surprised to hear herself swear. And then she laughed.

"What . . . Why are you . . . ?"

"That's why she gave it to me. Because everything else she's ever given me has come back and hit me in the face. Of course that's why." The sounds she was making couldn't be accurately described as either a sob or a laugh, but something mutated version of both.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, Mai. Nothing at all." She wiped the tears away, succeeding only in smearing blood all over her face.

The quiet girl held her shoulders and eased her toward the door. "C'mon, let's go in and wash the blood off your face."

"Yeah, sure . . . My face is all I've got left after all."

Azula

Her bruises still hurt three days after she'd received them. Her handmaids, all sworn to secrecy, took special care to add enough makeup to the dark patches to conceal the bruises, but everywhere she'd been marked still hurt enough to make moving more difficult.

_It could be worse. Father values me more than he ever valued Zuko. I haven't been burned once. _

She massaged one of the purple patches with her thumb, then turned to one of her handmaids. "Bring me the dress with the long sleeves. I won't be seen like this in public."

"Yes, Princess." The young girl hurried off, knowing the consequences of disobedience. Ever since she was old enough to understand words, her father had given her leave to punish her servants however she wanted if they failed her. Each of the girls in the room now knew the price of disobedience and laziness. They all knew the price of failure.

_I will never taste failure again, _she told herself as the girl returned with her dress. Azula stood up and allowed them to dress her. "Tazia, you're certain none of the marks are showing?"

"Not a single mark, Princess."

"Good. Take Lazuli and Ta Min out of here. You all have the rest of the day off."

Surprise flitted across the handmaid's face. "Princess? Are you certain?"

"I would like some time alone before the war meeting."

Each of the handmaids bowed, making the fire nation symbol with their hands before they left. Azula stood up and walked over to the mirror wall. Her handmaids had done well. The only evidence of the bruise on her face was the slight swelling over her cheek・something that would go unnoticed as long as no one called attention to it. Fire Lord Ozai had hit her there to remind her that her face was just as vulnerable as Zuko's was. _But that's not true. I'm the prodigy. I'm the favorite child, and I'm destined for the throne. He couldn't mean it._

To the mirror, she said, "I will never fail again." Her hand rose up to prod at the makeup-covered bruise. "I will never fail again." She purposefully relaxed the muscles in her face, the way she always did when she wanted to look composed. "I will never fail again . . ."

A single drop of saltwater traveled down the cheek where she'd been bruised・a reaction to her touching the sore spot, nothing more.

"I will never fail again."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Riding in a boat with Katara was one of the most terrifying things he'd ever experienced.

"How much farther do you think we'll have to go?" she asked, her arms circling around her body as she propelled the boat through the choppy waters.

"Another few hours at least. It'll be dark by the time we reach the mainland." They tore through another wave then, and the boat shuddered beneath them. Zuko clung to the edge, crouching down to avoid being thrown overboard. They'd been traveling for half the day now, and Katara hadn't ceased her fluid movements yet. "Aren't your arms getting tired?"

"They're a little sore, but I'm good for a while."

"There's an island out there. We could stop and rest for an hour."

She shook her head. "Let's go a little longer." She pushed them faster, and he settled below deck again, glad that Katara was keeping a dry bubble around their boat so he didn't get soaked every time he went out.

He was wearing a blue tunic from the Southern Water Tribe, and a matching pair of pants. The clothes felt baggy and cumbersome, but he couldn't tell if that was because they were meant to be that way, or if it was because they were several sizes too big for him.

But he'd needed them. After spending several days out at sea, with saltwater and sand sticking to his Fire Nation garb, he'd needed to wash his clothes. With a girl in such close proximity, he'd found it prudent to borrow some of the abandoned clothes from the sleeping quarters while he did laundry. Katara hadn't seemed to mind seeing him in water tribe apparel・she'd changed out of the Fire Nation dress she'd escaped in the first chance she'd gotten.

Below deck, the conditions outside seemed a little more bearable. There was some turbulence as they cut through some of the larger waves, but so far, no one had been seriously hurt.

Feeling rather useless in a wooden boat in the middle of the ocean, he busied himself organizing the kitchen and cleaning the dishes they'd used. The sea prunes were stuck to the bottom of the bowls, and it took him several minutes to scrape the leftover residue out. He considered the fact that most ordinary people washed their own dishes every day, and wondered how they managed to do so without throwing the dishes at the wall.

Once the plates and bowls were scrubbed clean, he opened the cupboard to put them away. A stack of plates flew out of the wooden cupboard as a wave rocked the boat. Zuko reached for them as they fell, trying to catch them like the Ember Island Players had once done during one of their plays. He managed to shove a couple plates back into their place as the boat listed to the side, but the rest of them rained down and smashed against the hard floor, shattering. He flinched at the shocking crash.

_ Katara's going to kill me, _he thought, inspecting the damage. Most of the plates had shattered on impact, but in the center, amidst the colorful shards, a single, unbroken plate reflected his face back at him, scarred side and all.

He picked up the undamaged plate, looking at the shiny surface for a long moment. There wasn't a single nick on the surface. _Of course, _he thought, staring at the smooth surface. _Some things survive even the worst conditions. There will always be something salvageable after the worst is done with. _He traced the edge of his scar with his fingertips. _There will always be something left after the storm._

Sokka

People stared at them as they walked through the bustling port. _They don't know. They're only staring because we're a big group. They don't know who we are. _

But the stares were getting to him. As Toph had pointed out, they didn't exactly look Fire Nation. The water tribe had overall darker skin, and distinct facial features that marked them as foreigners here. Even Toph, dressed in elegant Fire Nation silks and holding his hand as if she really was just a blind little girl and not a powerful, vibration-sensing earth bender, looked unusual enough that the fishermen and soldiers stared at her as they walked.

"Hey, Snoozles, there's someone following us," Toph whispered as they made their way toward the docks. Sokka stiffened, his first instinct to glance back. "Don't look," she hissed.

He made his head face forward. "For how long?"

"About five minutes. I figured they were just trying to get somewhere, but she's been hanging too close to the edge of our group."

"Is she wearing armor?"

"No. Just regular clothes. There's are knives hidden in her sleeves."

_A cautious citizen, or a Fire Nation assassin? _He couldn't take the risk. "Is there any way you can trip her without being conspicuous?"

Her eyebrows pinched together. "Maybe. Hold on."

They walked several more steps. Sokka saw her foot shoot out behind her, just a quick motion. Behind him, he heard the thump of someone hitting the ground.

"Got her."

They kept walking, keeping quiet. _Something's not right, _he thought, just as a knife went sailing through the air beside him, mere inches from his neck. He threw himself to the ground, bringing Toph with him.

_ "What?" _she demanded as she hit the ground. The rock softened beneath her, so when she fell, she didn't hurt herself. "What is it?"

"Mai." It was all he said, but it had an enormous effect. The water tribe warriors turned, drawing their distinct weapons out of their Fire Nation clothes. Within a second, the whole port exploded in chaos, with people shouting for the soldiers. Sokka reached for his club, only realizing as his hand encountered his clothes that he'd left the distinct weapon back with Appa for safekeeping.

Another knife sailed inches from his head, and he raced toward the gloomy girl.

She threw another knife, this one aimed lower. It caught the bottom of his pants and pinned him to the ground. His momentum carried him forward, and his face slammed into the ground. He heard something crack and reached up to his bloody nose. He watched Mai slip another knife out of her sleeve. _Mai. Mai must've been with Azula. She'll know where Katara is. _"Where is my sister?"

"How should I know? She sunk our ship and swam off with the traitor."

He tried to pull free of the knife pinning him to the ground, but the way the blade was angled, it couldn't shear through the fabric.

He saw a silvery glint fly up from behind Mai, spinning through the air in a wide arc. _No way, _he thought, trying to identify the object. The way it moved, the deep cobalt blue it appeared when the sun hit it just right, it looked too familiar. Even the sound of it slicing through the air was right. But he just couldn't believe it until it embedded itself four inches into the ground. "Boomerang! You came back!"

Mai glanced back in the direction the boomerang had come from, then pulled another dagger from her sleeve-she seemed to have an infinite amount packed away in her clothes. When she threw this one, he rolled out of its path, feeling the cushion of air sliced apart by its flight. He heard it hit something soft behind him, but he didn't have time to think about the noise as he slashed at his pants, trying to free himself. The sharp edge of his boomerang sliced through the cloth with ease, and he raced forward, holding the familiar weapon between his hands. The girl reached into her sleeve again, a look of panic shooting across her face for just a moment when her hands came up empty.

"Ty Lee," she yelled, retreating. A figure, clad in drab brown and carrying a bag overflowing with articles of pink clothing, raced toward him, running faster than he could've imagined for such a slight girl. Even as she came close, however, he almost didn't recognize Ty Lee. Her hair-or what remained of it-stuck out in uneven tufts across her head. Other patches were thinly covered by a quarter-inch of fuzz clinging to her head. And her plain clothes, wrapped like brown bags over her slight frame, were so at odds with his image of her that he almost couldn't believe he was facing the perky girl who'd been fighting with Azula.

He used all his momentum to throw his boomerang, only to have her flip through the air and avoid it. When she landed, her arm shot out and her fingertips struck his upper arm. The numbness traveled down his limb with the speed of a striking Spidersnake, and he danced out of the way of Ty Lee's other hand as it shot out to paralyze his leg. The movement pushed him off balance, and he fell, rolling over onto his paralyzed side.

A wall of rock rose up to meet the agile girl, too high to flip over. She leapt to the side, trying to evade, and hit a second wall of earth as it rippled across the ground.

Sokka struggled to his feet, calling to his group of warriors. With all the commotion, he hadn't noticed dozens of Fire Nation soldiers crowding around his group. "Retreat!" he yelled at them, as Toph shot the circus girl in the air with a column of rocks. As he turned, he saw the earthbender's face. _Why is Toph crying? _he wondered, stunned by the unusual sight.

A deep roar rumbled through the air, and a shadow split the port in two. Sokka looked up to see Appa land feet away from them. The water tribe warriors climbed on top of the growling beast as he swept his tail across the ground, batting away half a dozen firebenders as he might bat away a scorpion bee. Sokka ran toward the flying bison. Toph struggled over to the six-legged beast, clutching her side as tears streamed down her face. She seemed to be having trouble walking.

_Something's wrong, _he thought as his fingers found the saddle."Toph, C'mon!"

"I'm coming!" she snapped, staggering toward them. Several Fire Nation soldiers came up behind her, falling into various fighting stances. She turned back, thrusting her leg out and flinging them away with a wall of earth. Her hand remained on her side, fingers tight around her tunic. Appa grumbled, swiping at another group of soldiers.

Sokka made a split second decision, abandoning the bison and running for the little earthbender. "Toph, take my hand."

She reached up, taking his wrist instead of his hand. He pulled her along, dragging her toward the bison. Iroh, who'd been left with Appa on the outskirts of town, sat on the front of the bison's saddle, the reins in his hands. He extended one thick-fingered hand toward Sokka and pulled him up, along with Toph. As soon as they were secure on the saddle, he gave the command to fly. Appa rocketed into the air with a swiftness that belied his girth, and then they were flying.

"Is everybody okay?" Sokka asked. They had taken his lead, followed his plan . . . anything that happened to them was his fault.

There was a rumble from the group, but none of the warriors seemed to be seriously hurt.

There was silence from Toph, curled up on the saddle. Sokka only noticed her as the others' eyes drifted down to her.

"Toph. Toph, what's wrong?"

She sat up, and he noticed again that her hand had not left her side. As he zeroed in on that fact, he noticed the darker spot of scarlet forming on her crimson clothes. _Oh no . . ._

"She got me, Sokka. Mai got me."

And then she lifted her hand to display the hilt of the dagger sticking out of her side.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

The lights glowed inside the buildings late into the night.

"Where is this?" Katara asked, no longer using her bending to hold off the rain. Now that she was in a Fire Nation town, it was best not to be seen using her element.

"It's near a port. That means there will be gossip from all over the world. If anyone knows where the Southern Raiders are based, we can find out about it here."

She nodded, her face growing more serious as she considered their mission. "Lead the way."

Zuko pulled his hood up over his head and started walking. He was back in the Fire Nation clothes he'd worn during his escape, to blend in better. She wondered how well that would actually work; it wasn't easy to conceal a scar like that, and his face was widely known from the wanted posters plastered all over the Fire Nation.

It was a smaller port than the one Azula had tried to bring them to, but the taverns scattered around the edge of the marketplace were overflowing with shouts, laughter, and the sound of fists hitting flesh. Katara glanced around as Zuko led her inside. "I'm not old enough to drink."

"You only have to be sixteen in the Fire Nation to drink."

"I'm fifteen." Her birthday had been a couple months ago, when she and Aang had been traveling together.

He glanced back, confusion flickering across his face. "Oh."

"How old did you think I was?"

He shrugged. "Older than that. Honestly, I didn't think a fifteen year old would have the ability or the drive to master their element that quickly."

"Aang mastered airbending by the time he turned twelve. And Toph was an earthbending master by the time we found her, and she did all her work in secret. I figured I was a lot further behind than either of them."

"I always struggled to learn firebending. Azula produced flame before I did, and she was younger than me. And up until the battle at the catacombs, I was never able to use lightning."

"Why was that, you think? Was it the stress of the situation, or had you been practicing and finally got it, or . . . ?"

"I think it was because I finally made a decision on who I wanted to be. My uncle once told me that to generate lightning, you had to have complete peace of mind and a total absence of emotion. When we fought at the catacombs . . . It was like everything else went away, like the whole world outside of Azula and me was nothing but smoke, and I knew I could do it. I can't really explain it."

She thought about that for a moment, trying to connect the thought process with her waterbending. She couldn't think of any situation that had really required her to feel nothing. If anything, her bending was stronger when she was angry. _Maybe it's because fire and water are opposite elements. They probably respond to different states of emotion. _

"Back at the island, you used waterbending to move one of the palm trees over the boat," Zuko said, his shoes crunching across the rocky road. "Where did you learn that?"

"When we were out looking for an earthbending teacher for Aang, we flew over this huge swamp in the middle of the water," she began, recounting the time when, in a swamp of illusion and mystery, she had met waterbenders who'd learned to move the vines of their home by manipulating the water inside them. The story carried them through the walk up to the first tavern.

"We'll try this place first. Here's our story: it's your sixteenth birthday, and I'm your brother, taking you out for your first drink. We're just going to stay for one, and then we're going to move on to the next tavern. Got it?"

She nodded, and he pushed the thick curtain away from the doorframe.

Inside, the bar danced with intoxicated sailors, avid gamblers throwing dice on wooden tabletops, and weary wives washing away their worries with drinks of every color. A fat man stumbled over to the door, almost falling on her as he swayed drunkenly. "Are you sure this is a good place to look for information?" she asked.

"Strong alcohol sires loose lips, and who hears all the stories in the world but the one giving out the drinks?"

Her eyes grazed across the dozen or so patrons at the bar・one of whom had just fallen off his chair and was indulging in a booming belly laugh. She felt her expression turn sheepish.

"Hey, welcome to the Cracked Staircase," the bartender, a woman with short, purple-dyed hair greeted them. "You come from the docks?"

"We just sailed in," Zuko responded, as if he had fielded such questions every day of his life. "It's my sister's sixteenth birthday. Can you give us something light?"

The woman examined her for a moment, her eyes critical. Katara tried to smile, but her muscles pulled up in all the wrong places, and she felt the grin sour on her face.

But the bartender was loath to turn away a new customer, so she made no comment on her apparent youth. "How 'bout a glass of Shameless Flame?"

"That'll be great," Katara said, trying to sound more natural than her smile had looked.

"One for me, too."

"Coming right up."

She watched the bartender pour them identical glasses of alcohol, wolfbats fluttering around in her stomach. Even though it was just for information, even though it was necessary to maintain her cover, she didn't like the thought of losing her wits on alcohol when she had such a dire task ahead of her.

Zuko sat down in the stool beside her. She took the cue, taking a seat for herself. Rainwater from the storm clung to the silk dress she'd escaped in, dripping onto the floor in a growing puddle.

"Have you heard any news about the Southern Raiders lately?" Zuko asked when the woman handed them their drinks.

"Why, you got a brother working there?"

"Cousin."

"What's his name?"

"Azulon," he replied, obviously picking the first name that came to mind. "He was named for the old Fire Lord."

"Well, I haven't heard anything about an Azulon, but I did hear they got a new commander."  
>"The old commander retired?" Katara asked sharply.<p>

The bartender shrugged. "I guess so. About time. Old guy must've been seventy by now. He's served the Fire Nation long and hard, and it was time for him to retire."

"Do you know where he is now?"

Zuko elbowed her, and she kicked his chair in response.

"I don't know. You'd have to check with the Southern Raider's new commander. He served as lieutenant under Yon Rha for years. I think their base is on Whale Tail Island this year."

Katara realized she hadn't take a single sip of her drink yet. She lifted the glass to her face and downed a painful gulp, not realizing how it burned until it slithered down her throat. Everything in the Fire Nation was hot. Zuko followed with a much tamer swallow.  
>"We'll have to send a bird to my cousin, won't we?" Zuko said as he set his glass down.<p>

The bartender got called away to pour more drinks on the other side of the bar. Katara sipped at her drink, barely letting the liquid trickle over her tongue. Perhaps it was partially a placebo effect, but she was feeling lightheaded after the first swallow. She looked at Zuko. "Can we go now?"

"Finish your drink. We don't want anyone getting suspicious."

She glanced down at her drink, still two-thirds full, and grimaced. _Just act like an expert, _she thought, tilting the glass up and draining the whole thing in several gulps. Her stomach turned, tying itself up into knots.

"Now that's what I call a woman," someone said from behind them. She looked back to see a hulking man standing at her back, a frothy yellow mug in his hand. "Knocking 'em back like a champ."

"Uh . . . Thanks."

"We're leaving now," Zuko told her, standing up as he finished off his glass.

"Oh, awfully possessive, ain't he? Is this your little lady?"

"She's my _sister_."  
>"Well, she drinks with more guts than you, boy."<p>

Zuko bristled, but kept his mouth shut as he shuffled over to the door. "Mai, are you coming?"  
>Lightheaded and dizzy from the drink, it took her a moment to realize he was talking to her. <em>Why Mai? Why not some other Fire Nation name? <em>"Yeah, coming."

"Hey, little girl, if you don't want to hang out with that ash, you can come drink with us." The man gestured to a circular table a few feet away. His friends were all watching, some merely curious, some leering at her.

"That's okay, I'm good." She skirted back a step, turning toward the door.

The drunk man's hand closed around her wrist and jerked her back.

Her legs automatically shifted into a fighting stance until she remembered she couldn't waterbend in front of all these people without giving her identity away. She froze, trying to think of an alternate means of attack as the man pulled her closer. As he exhaled, she breathed in the stench of sour alcohol and sweat. All around her, the bar quieted, as people began to take notice.

A flash of orange lit up her peripheral vision, and Zuko's hand came down hard on the man's wrist, his pale fingers coiling around his hairy skin like snakes. "Trust me, you want this to end right here," he whispered, staring the thickset man down with his striking golden eyes. The man returned his warning with a look of scorn.

"You can't be brother and sister. You don't look nothing alike."

"So what if we're not? It's none of your business."

"Zuko, let's just go," Katara urged, just as the drunk man lifted his arm into the air and brought his hand down in a fist. Zuko dodged the punch, spinning like a top. As he rotated, he sunk to the ground, hooking the man's ankle with his own. The heavy man staggered back, then fell with a crash into a table. The circular wooden piece tilted, all the glasses spilling off it and crashing to the floor. Every single one shattered on impact.

"You little brat," he snarled, lurching back to his feet. He grabbed a chair on his way back to Zuko.

_I have to do something, _Katara thought. Not waterbending・even if she could pull off some subtle movement, someone was bound to wonder who had sent the water flying across the room. The stranger with the unusual eyes and dark complexion would be their first conclusion. As the man lifted the chair over his head, she saw an opportunity.

_My dress dripped water all over the floor when I walked in. No one will notice that. _Her eyes found the puddle under her chair, and she moved her fingers just slightly, urging the water to move in the man's path. As his sandal came down over the puddle, she froze the water, leaving a slick patch of ice across the floor. When his foot hit it at an angle, he lost his balance and toppled forward, chair flying into the bar instead of Zuko's head.

The firebender took his opportunity to finish the fight. He thrust his fist forward, smashing the drunk man's nose in. His nostrils sprayed blood and snot all across the floor.

As the man stood, doubled-over in pain, the bartender reached the battleground. "You guys better get outta here," she said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder.

"Right," Katara said. "Let's go."

Not waiting for his opponent to rise, Zuko took her hand and walked out the door with her, pausing only to toss a few copper coins to the bartender. The red curtain over the exit flapped wildly as they pushed through it.

"So, where to next?" she asked, refocusing on the reason they'd come here in the first place, even though her heart rate hadn't slowed yet. They half-ran down the road, eager to get out.

"The bartender said their base is on Whale Tail Island. Even if their commander did retire, we should be able to gather reliable information there."

"How far away is that?"

"It's on the southeastern edge of the Earth Kingdom, so not too far, but not close, either. It'll take a few days of sailing to get there."

She smiled. Ever since the day she'd lost her mother, she'd wanted to hunt down the man who'd killed her. Now, with information of his location so close, she could almost feel his presense. The man who'd given her countless nightmares since that fateful night would face justice. _A few days. That's all. A few more days, and I'll have done it, _she thought.

Kimmen

Cleaning up after bar fights always added fifteen minutes to her shift, and with all the blood and snot trailing from the drunkard's nose, this one was worse than most.

Kimmen didn't complain, though. Most people couldn't stand listening to other people whine, and as someone who bought food with the tips she earned, she couldn't afford to have anyone not like her. So, as she'd done too many nights before, she stooped down to the floor in her nice boots and fishnet stockings and wiped a damp rag across the bloody wooden floor, holding her breath to keep the metallic smell out of her nose.

_Yorik, you idiot, _she thought as the fat man's friends dragged him, shirt stained red from the fight, out of the bar. _Every night, you get so hammered you can't even talk without getting into a bar fight. I ought to ban you from the premises. _But that would only cost her. Yorik was a pain in the ass, but he tipped well, and his business brought herds of other alcoholics to the bar. With the taxes the Fire Lord needed for the war, every bit of business helped, even if it meant cleaning up various bodily fluids every night.

As she scrubbed away the drying blood, she caught sight of her reflection in a puddle on the floor. She moved her rag over to the pile, figuring she'd get that before it damaged the woodwork, only realizing when her rag refused to soak up the reflective pool that the water was frozen solid. "What in hell . . ." She peered into the foggy ice, watching her own eyebrows arch in confusion. None of the ice cubes from the bar could freeze so solidly, and besides, it was too warm in here for that.

"Hey, soldier, come look at this," she said to one of the off-duty men as he sipped from a shot glass. Fire whiskey, she knew. Remembering customer's favorites was part of the process.

"It's ice," he said, when he'd examined the melting patch a little more closely.

_Well duh. _"I think that girl with the weird eyes was a waterbender."

He turned serious. "You could be right. I'll call it in."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

The storm broke the night they reached Whale Tail Island, and the moon peered through the thinning clouds, a luminescent sphere looming above them.

Katara tied back her hair in a tight braid, like she'd worn it back at the Southern Water Tribe to keep it out of her eyes. The style gave the night a ceremonious edge. This wouldn't be the most important night of her life・that wouldn't be for another couple days, depending on exactly where retired commander Yon Rha lived・but it was right up there. _Almost as important as the day I found Aang in the iceberg. _

Zuko busied himself tethering the ship to the shore so the waves wouldn't carry it away before they got back. Katara worried that the bindings would stymie their escape if they had to get out right away, but if there was no boat waiting for them when they got back, they'd have to swim to the next island.

"We'll have to stick close to the walls," Zuko said. "The watchtowers cover most of the island, but there should be a blind spot all around the perimeter, at least for a few feet. Are you ready for this?"

She touched her mother's necklace, hidden under her dark clothes. She'd picked this outfit because the black color didn't mark her as an enemy of the Fire Nation at first glance. Her bending would give her away, but that didn't matter to her. _Let them see the fury of the Water Tribe._ "I'm ready."

Zuko nodded, gesturing for her to follow. They clung close to wall, staying in its shadow. Katara noticed how quietly his footsteps sounded, even over the loose rocks of the shoreline, and tried to mimic his graceful steps. As they approached the front gate, she paused and pulled water from the ocean over her arms and torso.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure I've got my weapon."

"Your bending will give us away."

"I hardly think they're just going to let a pair of strangers in black suits into the fortress this late at night. I'll pin any guards to the wall with ice, and we'll work our way in."

He sighed, peering around the corner. "There are two guards at the gate. One good sweep will throw them into the ocean."

"Got it." She edged closer to the corner of the wall, looking at her targets for just long enough to ascertain their location. As soon as she had their position, she tore a rush of water from the sea and shot it through the air. They didn't even have time to look at her before they were swept into the water. "Let's go."

They ran, fearing that the shouts of the men swept out to sea would be heard by the others in the fortress. While the shouts were loud enough to make them both wince, no one came to attack them, even as Katara sliced the door apart with a water knife.

"The commander will be near the top," Zuko said as they reached a flight of stairs. A soldier saw them as they reached the top of the stairwell, and Katara reached out with tentacles of water and flung him down the stairs, freezing him to the wall as she did so. He started shouting for help. "We've got to go."

They ran faster, flying up the next stairwell at twice the speed of the first. A third flight of stairs greeted them, then a fourth. Eventually, they reached the top floor. Katara guessed where the commander was working by the ornate door with his title carved into it. She blasted through the door with a surge of water, the full moon adding to her power.

The man wore a spiked helmet, and armor marked with the distinct sea raven symbol on the flags of the ships he commanded. Katara froze him to a wall, pinning down everything except his face. "We have some questions for you," she told him. Beside her, Zuko took a fighting stance, holding a fireball in his hand.

"Guards. Guards!" the man shouted. Katara let what was left of her water supply shoot in his direction as shards of ice. Each shard struck within an inch of his face, burying themselves in the metal behind him. The man paled.

"Now, you're going to tell me something. Where is the previous commander? The one who led the raid on the Southern Water Tribe six years ago."

"Yon Rha? But why?"

"Just answer the question," Zuko said.

"Last I checked, he was living on an island a day's travel south of here. But the man's retired, there's nothing he can do for you."

"Oh yes there is," Katara whispered. "He can pay for what he did to my mother."

Panicked voices came up from the stairwell. She glanced at the door just as half a dozen Fire Nation soldiers stormed the room.

Zuko reacted first, sweeping his leg across the floor and sending forth a wall of fire. Katara melted some of the water around the new commander's torso, then brought it to her arms, ready to fend off any fireballs.

Several soldiers, wearing helmets in the shape of sea ravens, broke through the line of fire, only to be thrown back by a pair of fireballs launched by Zuko.

Katara turned back to the frozen commander. "What's the name of the village?"

"I . . . I don't remember."

"Think harder."

"He said something about the soil. How fertile the soil was . . . I don't know the name of the village. Have mercy, please . . ."

"Katara, we're not going to get out his way. You have to smash the window."

She turned to the wide windows, overlooking the sea, and threw a jet of water through the glass. The window exploded into a thousand shards. "We're four stories up," she said as she looked past the broken shards. "We'll die if we jump."

Zuko struggled to shoot back one of the men holding spears, then ran toward the yawning window. "Bend the water up to the edge. We'll use it as a cushion to get down."

She turned back to the window, lifting her arms with a slow, powerful movement. The sea crawled up the shore, pounding against the impenetrable walls. It rose up, clinging to the concrete.

Behind her, she could feel the heat of the fire seeping through her dark clothes. Sweat tickled the back of her neck, following the ridge of her braid. The taste of smoke stuck to the roof of her mouth, a foul flavor she knew too well. Outside, the sea swelled, clawing its way toward her with a slow, inexorable force. Zuko's footsteps, so quiet a few moments ago, pounded against the floor as he ran for the window. "We have to go now."

"The water's not close enough."

"There's no time." He cast a rapid glance outside. The wall of liquid was just up to the third floor, about a dozen feet down from where she stood. Three soldiers broke through the wall of fire and took stances to attack. Zuko turned back to her, taking her hand. "We'll survive this, I promise you. Jump with me." His eyes reflected the moon outside the window, almost seeming to glow gold for a moment.

The soldiers thrust their fists forward and shot spheres of flame at them.

Katara gripped Zuko's hand as tightly as her fingers would allow, and flung herself out the window.

Sokka

A pile of crimson-stained clothes had been tossed in the corner of the tent.

Sokka stared at the red spots, each a stark contrast to the pure white cloth they were spattered across. Brief battles had steeled him against the sight of blood, but the shocking stains held a horror that the battlefield did not.

Toph lie unconscious on the stone slab of the medicine woman, her skin bare where the knife had gone in. The blade was gone now, sitting off to the side of the table. In its place were half a dozen fresh rags, soaking up the macabre fluid. As soon as he processed that much, he had to look away.

_Stupid. I was so stupid. _

The medicine woman was just an acolyte of the village's primary healer, but the healer was gone off to some distant village to tend to a critically ill patient, and wouldn't be back until well past nightfall. The acolyte had identified them on arrival as enemies of the Fire Nation, and had tried to shoo them out until she'd seen the blood running down Toph's clothes. Any arguments she had against assisting them had vanished right then as she'd scrambled over to her table and set down a sheet for the tiny earthbender.

_Should've never gone looking in the first place. Now I stand to lose both of them. _

Iroh stepped through the curtain, where the young healer was working. She quickly ordered him to retrieve several plants for her from the garden. Sokka supposed it should be a relief having someone who knew some things about herbal medicine on their team, someone who might actually be able to help the novice healer, but he felt no such relief, only gnawing fear.

_Our group is dwindling. Aang and Katara . . . What if I lose Toph now? Then it'll just be me. I'll have to do everything myself. And what if I get hurt? Katara won't be there to help me. I'll be lucky if Iroh sticks around long enough . . . And the water tribe warriors must've lost faith in me, after that disaster. _He shook his head, repressing tears. It was unmanly for a boy his age to weep, even in the face of such hopelessness.

Iroh returned with the plants the healer had requested. When she gave him no further orders, he approached Sokka, tucking his hands in his sleeves. "Perhaps it would be best if you got some fresh air."

"I'm fine," he said, hearing the slight tremor in his voice.

"I'm sure your friend will be all right."

He didn't respond to that・wasn't even listening really. The firebender tilted his head to the side, watching him as he watched Toph.

"When was the last time you ate?" Iroh asked suddenly. At the abrupt inquiry, Sokka tried to focus on what he was saying.

_Ate . . . Last time I ate . . . _He felt a rumble in his abdomen as he thought of it, but for once, the void in his stomach wasn't the first thing in his thoughts. _How long _has _it been? Since before the mission, for sure. How long ago was that? We started out this morning, and it's getting dark now. Did I even eat after we landed? That's not like me . . . _"I don't remember."

"You're probably feeling very faint now. You may want to eat something soon, to settle your stomach."

He frowned, the thought of eating making him nauseous. The unnatural reaction intensified his stress. "I'm not really hungry," he lied, wrapping his arms around his torso. "I'd rather stay here."

Iroh's eyebrows rose to his hairline. In the short time the old Fire Nation general had been traveling with the group, information had been exchanged at a rapid rate. Iroh knew more about the inner workings of the Fire Nation than anyone else, and much of what he'd said had proven useful in the past few days. He had been the one to suggest finding a village in the Fire Nation, so Toph could get medical care. Sokka hadn't realized until just now, however, that while Iroh had been providing them with inside information, he had also been observing them, making note of the minute details of their lives, their habits, their quirks.

Sokka returned his attention to Toph. Her face was as pale as the moon outside, and the disturbingly peaceful expression on her face reminded him of a sleeping angel, lying down in a coffin. He couldn't look.

"You're right," he said to Iroh. "I need fresh air." He hurried out the door, feeling his stomach turn. For a moment, he thought he was going to throw up in the bushes outside, but his stomach settled as his legs carried him to the top of one of the hills surrounding the healer's house. As he crested the grassy knoll, the moon came into full view. Close to the horizon, its surface looked huge and heavy.

Sokka sat down on top of the hill, crossing his legs. The full moon was an important figure in both water tribes, and especially to him after what had happened at the North Pole. He figured if there was ever a time to ask for something, this was it.

"I need a favor, Yue," he began, looking up at her shining face. Sometimes, when he looked at the moon at night, he could see her features carved into the craters. Those moments were fleeting, and often as soon as he grasped her features in his mind, the craters on the moon would lose meaning for him, and return to normal. Tonight, he imagined Yue smiling down at him. "I've already lost Katara and Aang. I've already lost you. If there's anything you can do for her, even though she's not a waterbender, I would . . . I'd be . . ." His breathing hitched, and he felt hot tears spill over the edges of his face. "I never believed in things like magic, or fate, or spirits," he went on, regaining his composure. "I always thought that we were the ones to shape our own destiny. And maybe・" He fought back another sob, struggling to continue. "Maybe that was right. But maybe, there's another part of it that I never really understood. Sometimes, the only thing to do is ask for help. So, I'm asking now, if you're listening to me . . . Please, please don't let me lose someone else. It was my fault she was there in the first place. Please . . ." The next sob was unstoppable. It clawed free of his throat, a hoarse wail in the quiet night. It had been a long time since he'd cried so hard. A few tears here and there, and a considerable amount of (justified and often correct) whining, but not like this.

Yue gave no answer, hanging in the sky just as she'd done every night since moving on.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The village was a pathetic little hamlet situated by a volcano. As Katara walked up the path to the highest house, she noticed the fire lilies clinging to the sloping sections of the volcano. "Well, the soil's fertile, anyway," she said.

"Uncle once told me that fire lilies only grow for a few weeks every year. If they're blooming this early, the soil must be good."

"How will we know when we find him?"

Zuko shrugged. "We'll ask whoever lives in this house if they know where he lives."

They continued up the hill until they reached the rickety old house. Katara lifted her hand and knocked on the door, feeling curiously lightheaded. The door swung open with a creak, and a wrinkled woman with a mole on her forehead glared at them from within. "What do you want, you rotten brats?"

"We were wondering if you knew if Yon Rha lives near here."

"He's out in the garden," the woman said before slamming the door. Katara stared at the rough wood for several seconds, her fist still lifted as if to knock. Slowly, she lowered her hand and turned to Zuko. The firebender brought two fingers to his lips.

"We'll wait," he whispered. "Once he leaves the property, we'll strike."

_So close. He's so close. _"What if he doesn't leave?"

"Then we'll lure him out. C'mon, let's go see what he looks like." He turned to circle around the house.

She followed, her legs stiff and wooden. They swept around the property in a wide circle, staying clear of all the windows. By the time they reached the back garden, almost fifteen minutes of careful moving had gone by.

He was working in the garden, as the wrinkled woman had said. His limp white hair clung to his face, dirty after apparent hours toiling amongst the dirt. His fingers were covered in dried mud, but the layer of filth didn't seem to impede him as he ripped dozens of stringy weeds from the topsoil. Beside him, a basket of tomato carrots sat, still covered in dirt from the garden.

"He looks so normal for a monster," she said.

"Most monsters don't look the part. That's how they fly under the radar for so long. If every monster had a scar marking their face, it would be a lot easier to eradicate them."

She looked up at Zuko. The scarred side of his face was facing her, but his eyes were focused on Yon Rha, in the garden. "But you're not a monster."

"I used to be. Back when hunting the Avatar was my only purpose in life. I didn't care who I hurt along the way. I didn't care about anything but my honor. I was a monster, with no control, no regard for life."

"You were confused."

"No. I knew exactly what I was doing."

She looked at the man who'd killed her mother, still ripping weeds from the ground with malicious fervor. The hate that bubbled up in her as she looked at him reminded her of the rush of water she'd brought up from the sea to cushion their landing at Whale Tail Island. It had rushed up, feeding on the fear and anger she'd felt. The rage was something she was familiar with・it had come up hundreds of times when she thought of the day her mother had been killed. Even when Zuko had been hunting Aang, however, he hadn't stirred the same degree of hatred in her.

"It's different," she told him. "Yon Rha deserves to die."

Zuko looked at her, his face troubled. "Katara, I'm sorry for everything I've ever done to you and your friends."

"Don't be. You've given me something no one else could. You've given me a chance to avenge my mother."

"What do you intend to do? Kill him?"

"That was the plan."

"Would your friends approve?"

"Aang wouldn't. Sokka might・she was his mother, too. Toph, I don't know. Would you?"

He hesitated, then said, "I would probably do the same thing in your place. My mother is probably dead after all this time. The official story is that she was banished. I can only take that to mean my father sent someone to kill her. She was named a traitor of the Fire Nation・it would've been perfectly acceptable to have her killed, even if she had been married to the Fire Lord. My father . . . He probably had her killed to tie up loose ends."

"He didn't kill you when you were banished."

"No, he didn't. But I wasn't a traitor-at least not back then-just a family reject."

"Maybe after the war is over-"

"Father will never take me back. I can accept that now. I have to claim the throne myself, if I want to keep it from Azula."

Katara shuddered at the thought of Azula leading the Fire Nation. The war would go on just for her amusement. "Would the people really follow her? She's insane."

"They'd follow her. It's a brilliant lie really. From the time we can speak, Fire Nation children are told that we live in the greatest nation in the world, and that the war is the only way of spreading our prosperity with the other nations. When you feed lies to children that long, they grow up believing it, and teaching it to their kids. Part of the lie is that the royal family's orders are absolute. If Azula steps up to rule, they'll follow her, no matter what she's like."

"But they'd follow you, too, wouldn't they?"

"Maybe. I'm still banished, though, and a traitor. I don't know how they'd react to having me as Fire Lord. If I could even win the crown from Azula in the first place."

From the house, a shrill voice called out for Yon Rha. "These tomato carrots are too hard for my teeth. I want you to go down to the market and get me some _real _food."

"Yes, mother," the monster responded in a desolate tone.

_Mother? That's his _mother_? _

"Katara, are you ready?" Zuko asked, standing up.

"Ready."

They descended down the hill, tailing the old man. She kept her eyes open for any sign of watchers, but there seemed to be no one else nearby, with the sky filling with bruised clouds. _Perfect. It's perfect._

She'd purchased a new skin to hold her bending water back at the village market, to replace the one that had been taken when Azula had captured her. It didn't hold as much, and it had no sentimental value, but carrying the water on her arms was a dead giveaway in the Fire Nation, and a lot of work, besides, so she'd traded bits of her Fire Nation dress for it.

Yon Rha stopped suddenly, on the path, turning back with his eyes alert. Katara recognized the pose of a wary warrior watching for enemy movement. A moment later, however, the man continued down the road, walking a bit faster.

She pulled a stream of water from her new pouch, letting the liquid flow across her hand. Zuko edged closer. "Circle around. I'll draw his attention and you do whatever you have to do."

She nodded, running across the path as quietly as she could. Yon Rha gave no indication that he knew she was approaching. Once she was well ahead of him, she stopped, hiding behind a crevasse in the rocks.

Behind Yon Rha, a rock flew across the road and hit a bush. The leaves hissed, their branches snapping. The monster turned around and shot a fireball at the shrub. "No one sneaks up on me."

Katara stepped out onto the path, sending her water toward the retired commander's feet and freezing him where he stood. "You're wrong," she told him. "I snuck up on you."

"Who are you? What are you doing?" His voice was hoarse with shock.

"So you don't remember me. I guess I'm not surprised." A raindrop fell across her cheek and slid down her face. "It's been years, and you only saw me once. Of course you don't remember. But I do."

"Who are you?"

She stepped forward. Another cool drop of water grazed her arm as the clouds began to weep. "It's been over six years since you last saw me. I was eight when your ship stormed my village, looking for the last waterbender in the South Pole. You were interrogating a woman in one of the igloos about the identity of the last known waterbender when I ran inside looking for her."

Recognition flashed through the monster's wide eyes. "You're the little girl."

"That woman you were interrogating was my mother," she went on, feeling cold inside. It was as if all the anger she should've been feeling was being washed away by the rain, and the only thing left behind was a bleak sense of duty. "She told you she was the last waterbender in our tribe, but she wasn't. She wasn't a waterbender at all."

Yon Rha looked down at his feet, frozen to the ground. "No. Impossible . . ."

Katara's fists tightened, and the steady rain froze in midair. "You're the one who killed my mother. You ruined my _life_."

"No, you don't understand. I had orders . . . Please, spare me."

The water on the ground rose up in wisps, crawling toward the monster like tiny bugs. The water suspended in midair converged on him as well, coating him with a layer of liquid until all but his face was wet. "Wait! You can take my mother! Then we'll be even. Please, just spare me. I'm an old man."

A wave of revulsion overtook her. _This man . . . He's a monster. He's even worse than I expected him to be. _"You would sacrifice your own mother to save your life?"

"Yes, yes, please. I'll never raise a hand against your village again. You can take whatever revenge you like."

"I see," she said hollowly. _He feels nothing. He's empty._

_ But he's still human, _a voice whispered. The voice belonged to her thoughts, but it struck her as something Aang would say, in this situation.

_Aang wouldn't understand, _she thought in response. _I need this. _

_If you kill him, you're no better than he is._

_ No. He deserves it. He's willing to let me kill his own mother__・__he's a monster._

_ You're better than this, Katara. _

More water rushed up to the firebender's neck as her anger returned in force, and he tilted his face up, afraid of drowning. The rain was pouring down even harder now, almost as hard as it had during the storm. As it fell near her, it turned to steam.

"Spare me, spare me . . ."

She threw him against a tree and froze him there. "You're just an empty shell. There's nothing good left inside you. Why should I spare you?"

"I'm just an old man. I'm sure I'll be dead soon, anyway. Be generous. Give me the last few years of my life, I'm begging you."

She lifted her arms and slammed him into a different tree, salty tears mingling with the rain on her face. This time, she just froze his wrists and ankles to the bark. Once he was secure, she moved the rain so that it gathered in a great blob of liquid. She split it into a dozen portions and froze each one, so that the ends tapered down into sharp points. Pinned to a tree, her mother's killer whimpered.

"You should never have stepped foot in the Southern Water Tribe," she said, looking up at the moon above. It was still almost full・it would give her the strength to do this.

On the tree, he was sobbing, tears raining down his face as the rain melted the icy restraints on his hands. Katara spread her arms, moving the ice spears so they were all aimed at Yon Rha. They shot forward in one rapid motion, making the old firebender cringe against the rough tree bark in fear. The spears sailed through the air, slicing through the droplets of rain.

They stopped inches short of his body.

The world stood still for a long moment. Slowly, Katara lowered her arms to her sides and let the spears fall to the ground as water. All around her, rain poured through the trees. "An empty shell. That's all you are. It means there's nothing left in you to kill."

She refilled her new pouch with the rainwater, and walked up to the man who'd destroyed her family. "By the time the ice on your wrists thaws enough for you to break loose, I'll be somewhere out at sea. And I can go, knowing that I already have my revenge. Your life is nothing anymore. You're incapable of feeling anything. You're incapable of hurting anyone now that your body has grown so weak in its old age. That's revenge enough."

She turned, relieved that she didn't have to look at him anymore, and walked over to the bushes where Zuko was waiting. He approached, his expression enigmatic. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"He's not worth killing." Just saying the words made her feel better. It was like a great pressure had been building up inside her ever since she had found her mother's body, and now it had finally been released.

They stood there in the rain for several seconds before Katara stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Zuko. "Thanks for bringing me here. And you don't have to be sorry about anything. I forgive you."

"I'm glad." He held her, his hair brushing against the side of her face as they embraced. Katara would've been content to just stand there. The ordeal she'd gone through today had drained her, and she wanted nothing more than to rest. Besides, Zuko was very warm.

But the moment did pass, and she made herself let go of him. Without another word between them, they walked down the road, to where their boat was tied up outside the village.

The tiny village was comprised primarily of houses, the only public structures being the marketplace near the water. The shops were mostly empty, closed because of the rain, and still mostly empty after the recent storms. As they passed through the abandoned fish market on their way back, Zuko paused.

"What is it?" she asked as he walked in a direction perpendicular to their course. He ducked under a tarp and plucked a piece of paper off the market stall. The edges of the paper were moist and smeared by the storm.

"We've got a problem," he told her, holding up her wanted poster.

:


	11. Chapter 11

_Author's Note_

_ Hello again, everybody, and thank you for reading this far. I'm loving the reviews and all the page views, and I'm hoping you love my story so far. I know I promised you a Zutara romance, and I just want to say, we _are _going to get there. I know by this point some of you are a bit worried about where this story is going in regards to Zuko and Katara, but I'm expecting the romance to really unravel in the next few chapters now that we're past the Southern Raiders arc. Hope you'll be patient with me, and thanks as always for reading._

Chapter Eleven

The edges of the paper crumpled between her fingers as she stared at her picture.

It was well-drawn, she had to admit. The proportions of her face were right, and while her hair didn't quite match the style she'd been wearing on the night of the bar fight, it was close enough that it wouldn't hinder identification if someone tried to compare her to the wanted poster.

So far, there was no poster for Zuko. Perhaps they'd identified him as the prince, and another wanted poster would be superfluous since there were already plenty circulating around the world, or perhaps they hadn't gotten around to writing one for him yet. It didn't matter, though. As long as they were traveling together, their chances of being identified were greater than Katara cared to think.

"What do we do now?" she asked, folding up the poster and tucking it in her pocket.

"We get as far away from here as possible, and listen for rumors about flying bison," Zuko told her as he untied the boat from the tree they'd docked next to. With such a conspicuous boat, going into port was suicidal. Katara climbed into the water tribe boat and stretched her arms, getting ready to sail. As soon as Zuko was below deck, they set off.

The pinwheel motion required to push the boat through the sea had become familiar to her in the past few days of travel. She had taken the unique motions of the Foggy Swamp style and modified them for the larger boat, the result being a watercraft capable of outracing a Fire Nation cruiser. The downside to using bending as a power source was that, eventually, her arms grew sore and fatigued, and they had no backup method of propulsion to move them in case of attack. So about eight hours in, her exhausted arms gave out on her and she retreated below deck.

Zuko was standing over the stove when she came in, waiting for a kettle of tea to heat up while he stirred something in another pot. He gave her a rare smile when she climbed down from the trapdoor, massaging her arms between her fingers. "The tea's almost ready. It'll ease some of the soreness."

The gesture surprised her. Back when she'd been traveling with Aang and the others, the task of cooking had fallen on her shoulders. Sokka, though he loved food, wasn't skilled at cooking much besides meat. Aang was too young to know much about cooking, either, and Toph just wasn't the cooking kind of person. Even before she'd left the South Pole, she had cooked whenever Gran-gran was busy. Katara wasn't used to having someone else cook for her. "You didn't have to do that," she told him as she sat down.

He shrugged. "Uncle said I was getting better at making tea, and I learned a lot about different herbs working at the tea shop in Ba Sing Se, so I figured I would practice." He poured water from the kettle into a pair of cups, and added the appropriate herbs. A few moments later, he handed her a cup and sat down at the table, across from her. "Besides, I felt useless down here, so I figured I would at least try to do something productive."

She sipped at the tea, bracing herself for whatever flavor the hot liquid would be when it hit her tongue. The few times she hadn't been the one to cook back at camp, the results had been disastrous. But the tea wasn't bad at all, so she took another sip. "It's nice," she said, sensing Zuko was waiting for a word of approval.

"Thanks."

They sat in silence for a few minutes while the scent of whatever else Zuko had been cooking drifted through the small compartment. Her mind drifted to what Aang might be doing right now. _He's probably with the others, working on his earthbending. Toph knows he still needs to sharpen up his skills if he wants to defeat the Fire Lord. Or he might be looking for me right now. The wanted poster will make it easier to find me, if they happen to see it. Of course, it'll make it easier for our enemies to find me, too. But if we're both looking for each other, how can we fail? Unless they're not looking for me. _She shook the thought away. _Of course they're looking, why wouldn't they look? Just because Sozin's Comet is on its way doesn't mean they don't have time to come looking for me. I know Aang can practice his bending on the go, and they all must know that he'll be a lot more clearheaded if he knows I'm okay. _She bit her bottom lip, then made herself swallow another gulp of tea.

"We'll find them," Zuko said abruptly. She glanced up, startled. It was almost as if he'd heard her thoughts. "That's what you're worried about, isn't it? That we won't be able to track them down, or that once we do, we'll find out something has happened to them? I'm worried, too. I don't know if my Uncle got away from the catacombs at all, or if I could find him if he did. But I have experience tracking the Avatar, so you shouldn't worry so much about that. It's not hard to find a group like yours when they're traveling on a giant, flying bison."

"I know," she said, wishing she felt as confident. "I just worry about them." She drank the last of her tea, and Zuko poured her another cup without her asking.

"They're probably looking for you, anyway. They'll assume you were taken to the Fire Nation when Azula took us captive, so they'll be around here." He stood up, setting down his cup of tea, and returned to the stove to stir whatever was in the pot. It smelled spicy, not like sea prunes, or anything else she would've expected to be stored in the boat. After a moment, he opened the cupboard and retrieved two bowls.

Katara watched with interest, wondering what the crown prince of the Fire Nation could be capable of cooking. As he poured the substance into the bowls, it became apparent that the aromatic dish was chili.

"I didn't think you'd like it as spicy as we usually make it, so I held back on the peppers."  
>"Where did you find peppers?"<p>

"Around. I looked around each of the little islands we stopped at. Since the Fire Nation is a primarily tropical country, we have a variety of food growing all over, especially the spicy kind."

He gave her one of the bowls and sat down again. The chili sent up puffs of steam.

"When did you find the time to look for those?"

"While you were asleep. I was worried you might wake up and wonder where I was going. I wanted to surprise you."

"You woke up in the middle of the night to go looking for these?"

He nodded. "I had nothing better to do. I'm pretty much useless out at sea, so . . ."

She took her first bite of chili, glad Zuko had decided to hold back on the spice. It burned all the way down her throat as it was. "This is good," she told him once she got used to the bite. "Where did you learn to cook like this?"

"When I was searching the world for the Avatar on my ship. There's not a lot to do for fun when you're out at sea for so long with no sign that there's going to be any payoff."  
>She nodded. The tea he'd made was working・her aching muscles were starting to relax, and without the constant pain, it was getting harder to keep her eyes open. "I'm tired," she murmured.<p>

"Then you should rest. That's what I do when I'm tired."

"Are you going to have any more chili tonight?" she asked.

"No, probably not."

"Then I'll freeze the rest for tomorrow." She stood up and walked over to the pot of chili, freezing it solid and putting the frozen pot in one of the insulated cupboards on the floor. Languid after the hours of bending and the subsequent meal, she walked over to the sleeping quarters. "Goodnight, Zuko," she said as she slipped through the door. "Thanks for the tea. That was thoughtful of you."

Ty Lee

The ink was smudged where her tears had hit the parchment. _I'm sorry, _she thought as she placed the folded sheet at the foot of Azula's bed. The words were all carved into her mind, elaborate etchings drawn with a sharp stick.

_I'm sorry I can't face you directly with this, _she had written, the words feeling too stiff and formal even though the intended recipient was a princess. _I've come to realize some things in the past few days, and I hope you'll forgive me. _

_ But I have to do this. There's no place for me at your side. I'm not worthy of your friendship or this nation. My heart has always been a treacherous thing. I abandoned my family to find some place where I could stand out and be an individual, instead of a matching set. I was vain to the point of contempt. I struggled to come to terms with my loyalty to you and the Fire Nation. And now my traitor heart is telling me that I have to leave._

_ The Avatar is dead. You did your duty when you killed him, and the Fire Nation is safer for it. But now, having seen how truly vicious you can be, I realize that I can't stay friends with you anymore. _

The tears had started flowing then, smudging the neat calligraphy, but she'd continued to move her hand across the page, driven to finish this letter. It didn't matter how much this goodbye hurt, she'd tried to convince herself. She had made her decision, and that meant facing up to this task.

_I'm joining whatever may be left of the Avatar's group. I will fight you, Azula, not out of malice, nor out of duty. I will fight you because, when I run away from here, that will be the only choice I have left. I hope you don't hate me for it. I truly did value our friendship, even though times were not always good. I hope__・__even though I doubt it will turn out this way__・__that before morning arrives and you wake up, I will have changed my mind and stolen this letter back so I can burn it. But I know that won't happen, and I'm sorry. _

_ I know the consequences of this treachery. I know it will cost me dearly. I know I'm destroying our friendship, and I regret it. But this is something I have to do._

_With love, _

_Ty Lee._

She had signed her name, sobbing over the paper. As soon as it was finished and delivered, there was only one final task for her to do. Ty Lee returned to the guest room she'd been appointed since Azula had recruited her. Her bags were already packed. She had the pink clothes she'd bought in the days since her recovery, some food for the way there, and some money for whatever else she might need along the way, but her bag was light compared to what she'd expected.

The sun would rise in six hours. That gave her enough time to get down to the docks, buy a ticket for a boat, and sail far away from here. It also gave her enough time to do one other thing, before all that.

She went over to her dresser, her feet heavier than blocks of lead. The mahogany dresser was massive, with a mirror large enough to encompass the faces of all her sisters, as well as Azula, Mai, and half a dozen others. Sitting on her dresser, right in the middle, was the pair of shears she had borrowed from the gardener's tool shed. She lifted the scissor-like instruments, staring at the silvery blade for a long moment. And then, with a single tear rolling down the side of her face, she snipped a tuft of hair off her head, letting it fall all the way to the floor before she cut a second one. And then a third.

And another, and another, until the her barren scalp reflected the flickering torchlight.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

"I never knew chili kept so well," Katara remarked as she ate the reheated dish.

Zuko shrugged, not letting his relief show. He had been relieved enough when she'd eaten the first time・he'd expected the waterbender to reject the spicy food at the first taste. Her continued endurance made him wonder if he was really as bad a cook as he'd imagined.

_At least I can do that much right, _he thought, biting into his own chili. It was bland by Fire Nation standards. "So, how exactly were you guys planning on facing my father?"

Katara hesitated, glancing up at him with wary blue eyes. _So she still doesn't trust me. _He let his gaze fall to his steaming bowl of chili.

"We were going to invade the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun."

"Clever, but it won't work."

Katara's voice turned sharp. "Why not? Firebending will be useless. Aang will be able to face the Fire Lord with the three other elements, and the war will be over."

"It won't work because my father's not that stupid," he said simply. "He'll know there's a solar eclipse coming・the Fire Nation has celestial calendars to predict that kind of stuff, and any such occurrence would be noted well ahead of time. My father, and the rest of the royal family, will be tucked away safely somewhere your group can't get to them. And even if you did manage to navigate the labyrinth of passages under the palace, how do you expect to get past the guards? There will be hundreds of non-benders protecting the palace that day."

"We've fought with worse odds before."

He frowned. The "we" obviously didn't include him, even though he was sitting across from her, and no one else was present. _Her head is still with the others. She may have forgiven me, but she'll never acknowledge me as one of them. _"Even if you were to get past them, and find your way to my father, _and _kill him in the eight minutes you have before the solar eclipse is finished, you would have to kill or capture Azula, and any remaining heirs before their firebending returned, _and _survive the trip out of the palace. By that point, the firebending will be back, and you'll have a thousand fireballs shooting at you from the castle gates. Now tell me, Katara, does that sound like a good plan to you?"

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You don't have to be so negative."

"The plan is suicidal, of course I'm being negative."

"Appa will be waiting for us. We'll get out of there."

_Ah, _now _I'm included in the "we." _He sighed. "The plan might work if you had the whole force of the Earth Kingdom behind you, but with Ba Sing Se under Fire Nation control, I don't see how you'll even be able to get past the first lines of Fire Nation defense."

"Who's side are you on, anyway?"

He stood up, almost knocking over his bowl. "_Yours_, if you haven't forgotten! I gave up everything to be on your side, to fight with the Avatar. I'm going up against my father, my sister, my _country_, all for the sake of doing the right thing. Do you even realize how much I stand to lose if the Fire Nation wins this war?"

Something like shock took over the waterbender's face, followed quickly by fury. "You don't realize how much I've _already _lost."  
>"What have you lost, Katara? Your mother? I think we covered that one. Your father? At least he didn't permanently scar you and send you off on a wild goose chase across the world. Your country? Last I checked, there's still a <em>Northern <em>Water Tribe for you to go back to. And what about your life, Katara? You obviously haven't lost that. If we lose this war, _you _might survive to fight again.

"But if we lose . . . I'm a traitor to the Fire Nation and a known enemy of the Earth Kingdom. If we lose, I'm not just going to be banished, or burned, or imprisoned. I'm going to be killed."

Some of the fire in her eyes died, and she turned away from him. "I'm going up on deck to steer this ship. Do you have a particular destination in mind?"

"Land. I just want to land so I can get off this stupid boat."

She didn't respond to that, but when she went on deck, the trapdoor slammed so hard it bounced before snapping shut.

_Why couldn't I get stuck with the peaceful Air Nomad, or the practical peasant with the boomerang? Why did I have to get stuck with the confrontational waterbender with a grudge? _He glared up at the trapdoor a moment longer, then snatched the empty bowls from the table and went to the sink to clean them. As the cool water washed over his hands, he calmed a bit. Menial tasks like this usually annoyed him, but his mind seemed to drift off as he scraped the leftover bits of chili down the drain. _But how else am I supposed to look for the Avatar? He'll be a lot more likely to let me teach him if he knows I haven't mistreated his girlfriend. If I try to find him without that much, though, I'm in for a fight. _

He sighed. Katara's temper irked him, but he couldn't blame her for it. His own temper was worse. How many times had he let his emotions get the better of him? Even with Uncle Iroh, the only person in the world he could turn to for anything. He remembered getting angry over a lost Pai Sho tile, over some hot tea in the Earth Kingdom, over their place in the third ring of Ba Sing Se. _I can't even be nice to people who actually like me. _

He realized he'd been rinsing the same dish for almost two minutes. He lifted it from the sink and wiped the water off it so he could put it with what remained of the plates. _I was just trying to be practical. The plan wouldn't work. Father would never be so stupid to leave himself vulnerable during an eclipse. I'm the only one who knows where in the palace they'll be hiding, and my firebending will be gone just like theirs._

Something went still in his mind for a moment, and the washcloth in his hand stopped moving over the second bowl. _My firebending will be gone, but that's not my only defense. _He thought of the Dual Dao Blades he'd used as the Blue Spirit. They'd been confiscated when Azula had captured him, along with all his money and supplies, but that didn't mean he was out of options. _I could find a new pair of swords, then kill Ozai and claim the throne. _

The thought repeated over in his thoughts a few times, dwindling his excitement. A shiver ran down his back. _I can't believe I just imagined that, _he thought, shaking his head. Kin-slaying was an abominable crime in any nation. No one would follow him if he killed his own father for power. Even when he'd dishonored the family, his father had opted to banish him rather than kill him for his alleged insolence.

Shocked by his own thought processes, he put away the last of the dishes and went to the sleeping quarters to lie down. He intended only to take a few moments to clear his head, but he must've fallen asleep, because the next thing he remembered was the sound of the trapdoor on deck swinging open. His eyes flashed open, and he sat up, lifting his arms in preparation for an attack. He let them down after a moment, realizing it was just Katara coming down from the deck. Her footsteps were light and quiet in the kitchen, probably in an attempt not to wake him.

He rolled off the mattress and headed out to the kitchenette.

Katara had gone fishing while she'd been above deck; she was spearing the fish with a spit she'd found in one of the cupboards. The skin under her eyes looked swollen and red, and every few seconds, she sniffed.

_Sick or crying? _he wondered as he approached. She continued spearing fish as if he wasn't there. "Do you want me to start the stove up for you?"

She shook her head, her eyes fixed on the wall.

"I'm sorry about this morning," he said. "I shouldn't have been so blunt."

Still, she said nothing. Her hands searched the cupboards until she found a pair of spark rocks. Her movements were mechanical as she struck them together to light the kindling on the stove.

"Are you still mad at me?"

Finally, she looked up at him. "No, I'm not mad."

"Have you been crying, or something?"

"No . . ." She positioned the fish over the fire, letting the orange fingers nip at the creature's scaly skin.

"What's wrong, then?"

"We were kind of working under the assumption the invasion plan would work. If it doesn't . . . I don't know what else we're going to do."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's not your fault. Better safe than sorry, I guess."

He watched her turn the fish so the skin didn't burn over the uneven heat. "Aren't you supposed to the optimistic one?"

She shrugged.

"It's not just the invasion plan that's worrying you, is it?"

Katara didn't answer.

"Is it the others then? Are you worried they didn't escape the catacombs? Or are you afraid we won't be able to find them, or . . ."

"After we were taken prisoner, Azula told me that Aang was dead. I didn't believe her, of course. She's lied before, and she must know by now that's the perfect way to get to me, except . . . You said she told you the same thing."

"Yes, but Azula _always _lies. And she's smart enough to know that we were likely to meet and compare notes later on, so she fed us the same story. I'm sure・"

"Except what if she _wasn't _lying? If Aang is really dead, that's the end of everything. The Fire Nation will win the war, and Sokka and Toph and I will probably be hunted down by bounty hunters within the next couple of years. You said yourself that you'll be killed outright. If Aang is dead, that's the end of hope for the world."

"Azula was lying," he said. "We'll find Aang and the rest of your friends, and we'll defeat the Fire Lord. You just have to believe that."

"But what if it _wasn't _a lie?" she almost yelled. "If I had been quicker, if I hadn't gotten caught up in the catacombs in the first place, he would've never been down there . . ."

"And then Azula would've just chosen a different point of ambush. It's _Azula_, for Agni's sake. It's impossible to win."

Katara looked down at her feet, setting the fish aside, her expression so heartbroken that he felt an urge to reach over and hug her. But he didn't know how Katara would react to the unexpected embrace, or if she was even stable enough to accept a hug.

The moment stretched on, growing steadily more awkward. Katara's almond shaped eyes were shiny with unshed tears, but the stubborn liquid wouldn't fall. He could see she was trying to keep it together, to be strong enough to bear whatever emotional burden she felt.

A single tear slipped down the side of her face, and his control wavered. He lifted one hand to her dark skin and wiped the tear away with his thumb. That was all he meant to do, he told himself, as she rushed into his arms and sobbed into his shoulder. Sometimes he forgot the girl was a year younger than him, that she hadn't grown up in the Fire Nation where such displays of weakness were quickly snuffed out, that only a year ago, she'd been just as helpless in a fight as a sparrowkeet with a broken wing. For a long time, he'd imagined her only as a warrior, a waterbending master able to slice him in half if she chose, or freeze him to a wall.

But she was a girl, too, and when he ran his hand down her head to comfort her, the soft ripples of her hair flowed through his fingertips like water. He ran his fingers down a single wavy section, smoothing it out only to have it spring back as he reached the end.

She didn't cry long. His shoulder muffled a few sobs, but as soon as those were done, the worst was over. After another minute, her arms slid down off his neck and fell to her side. She raised an arm to wipe her tears away. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Don't worry about it."

She looked up at him for a moment, scrutinizing his face with her critical sapphire eyes. He edged back, uneasy under her sharp gaze. But whatever she was looking for, she must've found, because her face softened.

"I keep trying to look for reasons not to trust you," she said. "But you really are a nice guy, aren't you?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'nice.'"

She picked up the fish she'd set aside and continued roasting them over the stove. She said nothing else about his apparent niceness.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

"You did well, Mizui," the healer told her acolyte, examining the earthbender's wounds.

"Thank you, Madame Zolena."

"So she's going to live?" Sokka asked, stepping closer to the healer's bench. The old woman, finally back from days of taking care of the ill man in the village, shot him an annoyed look.

"Shut your mouth, otter-penguin boy. You're lucky my acolyte helped the Earth Kingdom brat at all."

Sokka knew he should be offended, but after the various nicknames he'd received in his travels, all he could think was, _Otter-penguin boy. That's a new one. _

"I ought to report all of you・such rampant subterfuge inside the Fire Nation's own borders. If I didn't think those soldiers were already cataloguing my trash, I'd have you all imprisoned for breaching the borders."

_Yeah, like we don't know that. _"Thank you for taking care of our friend."

The old woman made a discontented sound in the back of her throat as she crushed various herbs in a bowl into a fine, green paste. She wandered back into the garden, grumbling to herself.

The young acolyte stepped forward. "Don't worry about her. She threatens and yells, but she wouldn't turn you in to the Fire Nation. Her ex-husband was a commander, and she's convinced he only wooed her to steal her herbal remedies for his troops."

"Uh . . . Okay . . ."

"As for the girl, she should be awake in another few days. The main danger seems to have passed."

"That's great." _Then we can get out of here and back to finding my sister. _

He left the healing hut, picking up his returned boomerang on the way out. After six days in the rickety medicine shop, he was sick of vegetables and herbs・a real hunter needed real meat. _This forest is crawling with life. It should be easy enough to find something to eat. _

As he walked down the stone steps toward the thicker part of the woods, a flash of movement below caught his eyes. Clad all in pink, a bald figure raced up the steps with long, rapid strides, her movements so distinct that he felt his muscles tense for a fight.

"Really Universe?" he demanded, throwing his arms up into the air. "I didn't even _say _anything this time!" He positioned himself on one of the steps below, trying to put some distance between himself and the hut so he had time to yell a warning to Iroh before the acrobat came sailing through the window. The weight of his boomerang felt natural in his arms, even after its brief absence. Perhaps he could fend her off from afar.

He flung his boomerang with as much force as he could manage, sending it spinning through the sky. The agile girl launched herself into the air and flipped twice, letting the sharp edge of the boomerang just barely graze her clothes before she came down. She landed six feet closer to him, and continued up the steps.

Sokka pulled out his water tribe club, ready to fend her off in hand to hand combat, even if it meant not walking for a few hours. Ty Lee skipped up the stony steps and stopped short, her feet coming together, a strange look on her face.

They stared at each other, like a pair of wolves preparing to fight over a fresh kill. Except it wasn't an animal they were fighting over. It was the safety of the healing hut.

Sokka waited, trying to judge exactly how the girl would move. He remembered the lessons Hakoda had taught him before he'd left with the other warriors to fight the Fire Nation, and he knew it was better to wait for the best point to strike than to get caught in a trap. But Ty Lee didn't make a move.

_I could call for help. Iroh's just out in the garden with the healer. He'll hear me. _He sucked in a deep breath, getting ready to shout. Ty Lee spoke before he could.

"I want to join your group."

His response came out hoarse with shock. "_What_?"

She lifted two fingers to her lips, her eyes flashing to the sea, far behind, then to the house, where the others were. "Let me explain. I left a note for Azula. I told her I couldn't fight with her anymore."

"You never had any problem with it before."

She shushed him. "Quiet. I don't want anyone to hear our voices. If the Fire Nation figures out my location, they'll lock me away forever. Or worse."

"Why should I believe you? You're Azula's pet."

The bald girl winced at that. "Am not."

Her childish reply made him think of Toph, and the way she used to vehemently reject any indication of sophistication or authority. His eyes flashed back to the hut without his permission.

Ty Lee's eyes followed, staying steady on the little building after she found it. "That's where you're hiding the others isn't it?"

He repositioned his club, wishing his boomerang had landed closer to him, so he could grab it. Perhaps using so much force had thrown it off course. "They're not in there. We split up."

Ty Lee frowned.

"Go back to Azula."

"I can't. She's read my note by now, she knows I'm a . . ." Her eyes started to overflow with tears, and she mumbled something incoherent.

"You're a what?"

"She knows I'm a traitor."

"And I know you're an enemy."

Her sadness abruptly turned to anger. "Would an enemy tell you that your sister escaped and is probably hiding in a cave somewhere in the Fire Nation isles?"

His heart skipped a beat. "Katara's alive?"

"Yes, and I have a pretty good idea where she is."

_No. There's no way she's telling the truth. Her loyalty is with Azula. _"You're lying."

Ty Lee plucked a scroll from her pocket and unrolled it. The face drawn on the page was easily recognizable. "Last seen in a tavern on Obsidian Island. This poster is only a few days old; she must still be in the vicinity."

He stared at the piece of paper, wanting to believe. _It could be forged, _he thought. _Azula could've easily had someone draw it up to lure us out of hiding. _

Another thought intruded, one he didn't want to face. _But what if she isn't lying? Then I'll have lost my only chance to find my sister. _"And what are the chances she's still there?"

"On that island? Not great. But she's probably within a hundred leagues of that place, judging by how fast she's likely to swim."

Her upper teeth rubbed against the skin of her lip, a nervous quirk. There seemed to be something she was leaving out.

_If Toph were awake, she could tell if Ty Lee's lying. _His eyes flitted back to the healer's hut. _But I can't wake her up now, while she's still recovering. _"Okay, let's make a deal here."

Ty Lee looked up with a smile. "What kind of deal?"

"I'll go with you to this Obsidian Island to look for Katara, but if you're lying to me, I'll throw you into a volcano."  
>She rolled her eyes. "Fine, but I'm not lying."<p>

"I'm going to tell the others where I'm going," he said, purposely leaving their numbers vague. He had seen the tiny acrobat in action, and he didn't doubt her ability to take on multiple opponents in a single stroke. _Which makes her a good ally, _he thought. _If she's really on our side. _

He peeked in the shop, looking for Iroh. He glanced up at Sokka's entrance. "Back already? Did you catch something?"

"No. Ty Lee's on the steps."

His eyes widened, and he stood up.

"She says she's on our side. She may know where Katara is."

"You're planning to look for her?"

"She'll be gone by the time Toph's ready to go. I have to find her; she's the only sister I've got, and having her back with us would strengthen our defenses. I don't like being so vulnerable. Anyone could attack us now, while our team is all split up." _And it doesn't matter how many water tribe warriors we have if Azula shows up._

"Do you split half a log hoping to get more lumber?"

"No . . . But Katara's my sister."

"You're old enough now, you don't have to ask permission to go. And if you happen to find my nephew along the way, I would be most grateful."

"Thank you, Iroh." He bowed his head and slipped through the back. Appa was lounging on a stack of hay, eating some of it. The behemoth rumbled a greeting.

"We're going to look for Katara. We need you to come with us, buddy."

Appa rumbled again, softer this time. The bison had been depressed ever since the battle at the catacombs, and Sokka thought he understood why. _When a wolf is separated from its pack, he mourns for the loss. When the pack is forced to give up a wolf, they all howl in grief. _"It's okay, buddy. We're going to try and get some of our pack back."

Sokka ushered the hulking creature out of the haystack, and brought him around front. Ty Lee was still waiting on the steps, in the same position she'd been in when he'd left her. Her face, though not framed in her cinnamon colored hair, sported a pretty smile. "I've always wanted to fly. Not just go up high on tightropes, but really fly."

"That's wonderful."

"You must be used to it by now. After all, you guys get to fly all the time."

He sighed, picking his boomerang out of the grass. "This is going to be a really long trip, isn't it?"

"No, only a few hundred leagues. Through the air, that should take no time at all."

Sokka suppressed a groan as Ty Lee vaulted onto the bison's back. "We'll be heading southeast of here, back toward that port Mai and I attacked you in. Oh, sorry about that, by the way. Mai's not actually・"

"Just . . . don't talk about it anymore, okay?"

This dampened her enthusiasm a bit. Sokka climbed over to the front of the saddle and took the reins. "Yip yip."

Toph

They must have been dreams, because her feet couldn't see a thing.

The smell was one she had never encountered before・noxious and full of life all at once. Stagnant water sloshed as she ran through it, mud trying to suck her feet in. All these sensations mingled oddly in her body, and no matter how deep she dug her feet into the slimy mud below the water, she couldn't feel anything except what came in direct contact with her skin.

It was the first time since she'd been able to crawl that she was well and truly blind.

She plowed through the water, not stopping until a branch coiled around her leg and brought her splashing down. The smelly water splashed across her face and engulfed her as she writhed in the tree's grasping roots. Her hands flailed in front of her, clawing at the water. Without a solid connection to the earth, she had no bearing on her location.

Her head finally found the surface again, and she gasped in a shocked breath of air, not caring how odd it tasted against her tongue. Her leg came free of the root holding her down, and she swam, clumsy and blind, until her senseless feet bumped into another root. This one didn't try to grab her, so she stood on it, wrapping her toes around the slick bark so she wouldn't come loose.

Feeling very much like a blind, helpless twelve year old, she started calling for help.

"Toph, why are you in the Spirit World?"

"Aang? Aang, I can't see anything." _Of course, Aang's in the Spirit World now. _The thought saddened her.

"There's a tree just a couple feet to your right. Can you make it there?"

She followed his instructions, sliding over the underwater roots until her hands found the drier bark of a tree trunk. She wrapped her arms around it, afraid to let go. "My feet are blind. What is this place?"

"It's a swamp in the Spirit World. Bending doesn't work here, so that means no seismic sense. Toph, did something happen? Were you dragged here by a spirit?"

"I don't think so. I did kind of almost die a few days ago." At least, her best guess was a few days. Being unconscious for most of it, it was hard to tell, but she guessed it would take at least that long for her to even be close to waking up.

"We've got to get you out of here, then. The sooner you return to your body, the better."

"Well, twinkletoes, I'd love nothing more than to get back to my body, but in case you haven't realized, I can't exactly tell where the exit is supposed to be."

There was a pause, and for a moment, she feared that Aang had disappeared. "Come to think of it," he finally said. "I don't know either."

"What do you _mean _you don't know? You're the Avatar."

"Okay, calm down, calm down. We'll figure something out. I'm sure someone here will know what to do."

_Well, that's really comforting. _She clung to her tree, burying her face in the bark to hide the fact that her eyes were burning with tears.

"Okay, hold on, I'm going to see if I can contact Avatar Roku," Aang said. "Don't move from this spot."

_Like I even could. _"Hurry up, fancyfeet, before something else goes wrong."

She heard Aang's retreating footsteps, and tightened her grip around the tree. Sound became her primary source of detection, but most of what she heard was unidentifiable. The buzzing of bugs was about the only familiar thing in this swamp. Other sounds pervaded this place, disturbing in her state of panic. She heard the heavy thud of some massive monster making its way through the forest, the sound too heavy even for Appa's feet. Noises like half-formed words echoed through the trees, garbled and indistinguishable from the songs of frogs. She could almost identify the language - while most people spoke the common tongue, some scholars knew many of the older, extinct languages. Growing up blind had made her accustomed to analyzing situations by sound as well as seismic sense, and her grasp of foreign languages was better than most kids her age. She'd eavesdropped on dozens of conversations in various languages. But despite the inherent familiarity in the tone of these murmurs, she could decipher nothing of these otherworldly tongues.

"Her body is alive yet in the world of the living," came a new voice, one she didn't recognize. It startled her because she had heard no indication of approach. Perhaps spirits didn't need to splash through the water or touch the ground to get places. Perhaps they just floated wherever they needed to go.

"That's a relief," Aang said. "How do we get her back?"

_He must be talking to Avatar Roku, _she thought.

"She may have entered the Spirit World by being so close to death. If we can find the place where she entered, we should be able to send her back."

"How will we know where she came through?"

The fire Avatar must've given some nonverbal response, because Aang spoke again.

"Don't worry, Toph. I'm sure we'll find a way out of here."

_We better. There's no way I can make it here without my bending._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

"I saw the monster myself. It was flying over Obsidian Island just yesterday. Big and white, it was, with a brown streak down its back and six paws big enough to crush a canoe."

Katara focused on the fisherman's conversation, being careful not to turn her head in that direction. She'd been so careful to face the wall while she sat in the dingy tea shop. Wanted posters wearing her face were plastered all over the islands, and her face was becoming more widely known than ever. Zuko had torn down a dozen posters on this island alone, and they'd waited two days since getting rid of them to show their faces in public.

Even so, they were careful to keep their distance from each other. The newer posters had told of the scarred man she'd been traveling with at the bar on Obsidian Island, and she'd decided it was safer if they didn't walk side by side where people could see them. Zuko was sitting on the other side of the tea shop, ostensibly looking through the comics in the news scrolls. In reality, he was scanning the stories of sightings of flying bison.

"Sure, Jin, and that giant eel you saw at Kyoshi island really _did _shoot water out of its mouth," said the boy the fisherman was talking to. They appeared to be brothers, from the similar facial structures.

"It's _true_. Both of them. It was a flying buffalo creature."

_Bison. It's a bison, _she thought, sipping her tea. At least it didn't burn like the alcohol she'd tasted at the tavern.

"And where was this giant six-legged buffalo going, exactly?"

"It was the strangest thing. The beast flew in circles over the island for almost half an hour. At one point, it got so close to the ground I thought it was going to run right into the volcano. And such fearsome noise it made, a grumble that made the volcano shake and the heavens split asunder."

"And then Agni came down and showered you in brilliant firelight," the younger one said, his words dripping sarcasm. His tone reminded her a little of Sokka.

"How did you know?"

Katara gulped down the last of her tea and stood up. She took the long way around the room, circling around the tables to make sure Zuko saw her and followed. After a moment, he rose from his seat, finished his cup of tea, and put the newspapers back on the shelf.

Once they were safely outside, she turned to him and said. "That fisherman in the corner was talking about Appa."

"I heard. They flew over Obsidian Island, so that must mean they saw your wanted poster."

She nodded. "So, we're going back to the island?"

"It's our only choice. I'd imagine they'll widen their circle looking for you, so the closer we are to that island, the sooner we're likely to find them."

She hurried to the boat, smiling widely for the first time all day. "Aren't you excited?" she asked as they untied the ropes tethering them to solid ground.

"Worried, actually."

"Why?"

"They probably won't be thrilled to see we've been traveling together."  
>She jerked a stubborn stretch of rope free of the tree they'd tied it to. "Well, they can get over it. I might not have survived the trip if it wasn't for you."<p>

"Are you kidding? You've been doing all the work."

"Only with the ship. I don't know how I would've gotten through the bar fight if I'd had to resort to my bending."

"But you did," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but it would've been a lot more flashy, and there were plenty of soldiers in the bar by then. I would've been taken into custody."

"Except that you wouldn't have been _in _the bar if I hadn't suggested it."

"Don't start acting guilty. I needed you, and that's that. So quite worrying. Aang will let you be his firebending teacher, and everything will be just fine."

"Whatever you say," he said as he climbed onto the boat. She lifted her arms and brought the tide up high enough to carry them into the water. As soon as that was done, she started moving her arms in the pinwheel motions she'd been using to propel the boat.

Zuko stayed above deck, more comfortable with the boat now that the intermittent storms were done with. While she focused on propelling them to Obsidian island, he kept his eyes to the sky, looking for flying bison.

They didn't speak much as the day went by, preferring to keep to their respective duties on deck. The only time they deviated from this was when Zuko went below deck to make some tea. Katara paused to drink, feeling dehydrated after bending all day.

They docked on the sandy shore of Obsidian Island an hour after the sun set. "Will we be safe here?" she asked as they tied the boat up.

"They wouldn't expect us to still be on the island. As long as we stay out of sight, we'll be fine."

For dinner, she used her bending to pull several fish out of the water, letting Zuko take care of the fire. They ate on the beach that night, instead of in the boat.

The moon was waning, several days having passed since she'd used its power to get them safely away from Whale Tail Island. Less light meant she had to stay close to the fire to see well.

Staring at the sand and waves got boring after a while, so she watched the way the firelight played off of Zuko's face. His gold eyes reflected the campfire, seldom moving from the flickering flames. The rest of his face was dyed orange by the light. The scarred side didn't reflect it quite as well, so it appeared darker than the normal side. The difference between them fixated her for so long that he glanced up and asked, "Does the scar look different near the fire, or something?"

"No. Well, a little. Sorry."

His strange eyes met hers for a long moment, strangely devoid of emotion. Katara realized she was still staring, then quickly averted her eyes.

Zuko sighed.

They sat like that a moment more, the moment growing progressively more awkward.

"You never told me how you got it," she said weakly, trying to explain her fixation. "I was just curious."

"I don't really like telling the story."

"Oh." She dropped the subject, and took a bite out of her second fish.

"Do you really want to know?" Zuko asked.

She fidgeted, curious, but unsure if this would be violating his privacy. "Only if you want to tell the story."

"It happened the day I was banished," he began, his eyes refocusing on the campfire. "I had spoken out against a plan at my first war meeting, and I was supposed to take part in an Agni-Kai to make up for speaking out of turn. I thought I was going to fight the general whose plan I had denounced. My firebending still needed work, but I was young and agile, and the general seemed to be growing frail in his age, so I thought I'd be able to beat him.

"It was a big affair. I don't remember how big the audience was, but I know that, at the time, it seemed like a lot of people. It seemed strange that so many people would show up to see a general they didn't even know fight with a prince with no more than average firebending skill, but I wasn't thinking about that at the time.

"Before an Agni-Kai, it is customary to face away from your opponent. I didn't understand why the crowd cheered when my opponent entered the room. I thought that maybe the audience was made up of soldiers he'd led into battle, and they were cheering for his leadership. I didn't realize until I turned around that I wasn't going to fight the general."

"Who _were _you going to fight?" she asked, confused.

"You see, I had spoken out against the general's plan back in the war meeting. He'd wanted to sacrifice a bunch of new recruits to open the way for . . . some Earth Kingdom thing. I don't remember, exactly. Everyone seemed to be agreeing with him, and I tried to wait for someone to tell him that was wrong, but when no one did, I had to say something.

"But even though I had denounced the general's plan, it wasn't him I was fighting. I had spoken out in my _father's_ war room, and brought dishonor against my _father's _family, so it was my father I was facing."

"But you were just a child!"

He made no response except to continue his story. "I tried to surrender when I saw that it was him. I begged his forgiveness." He lifted his hand to the scar. "And in return for my pitiful groveling, he gave me this and sent me away on a wild goose chase across the world.

"And after all that, being banished was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't know where I would've gone if I'd spent even more time growing up in the Fire Nation. I might've become as ruthless as my father."

"I don't think you would have."

He lifted one hand up to the fire, and the flames grew until the column stretched three body lengths into the air. Katara watched embers soar up into the sky like hundreds of fireflies.

Zuko dropped his hand, and the flames dropped to their normal level. "Fire is unpredictable," he said. "Even skilled firebenders have limited control over it. We can try to keep it from burning anyone. We can try to maintain perfect control all the time, to make sure our bending doesn't rage out of control, but in the end, it only takes a single misplaced ember to ruin everything.

"It was like that for me, before I was banished. I did try to be a good person. That was why I spoke out in the first place. But I did it the wrong way, at the wrong time, and everything burned out of control."

She stared into the flames, trying to think of a compelling argument. She couldn't. The Fire Nation had burned her too many times.

So she said nothing, choosing instead to watch the tongues of flame lick the air above the campfire.

At some point during the night, she fell asleep in the warm circle around the fire. When she woke up, there was a blanket draped over her shoulders, and the sun was rising in the east.

Zuko had fallen asleep, too, across the fire pit. The blackened wood no longer burned, and what little remained of it lie in a bed of ashes. Zuko's eyes were closed as he lie beside the dead fire, his arms curled up around him. The features of his face were slackened by sleep, his lips parted slightly. His hair, covered in sand from the ground, hung over half his face, obscuring part of his scar.

For a brief moment, as the morning sun slanted across the unscarred side of his face, Katara thought his expression looked serene, almost angelic in the pale light. In that fleeting moment, the scar on the other side of his face didn't seem to suggest his dual nature, as she'd always considered it, but a sort of acceptance of both the bad and good in his life.

She stood up and started folding the blanket he'd apparently draped over her shoulders, waiting for the moment to pass. But the sun didn't seem to change position, and he remained frozen in his peaceful slumber. Katara felt a lump rise in her throat.

_The sand will dampen the sound, _she told herself, walking closer to the firebender. _He's fast asleep, anyway._

She knelt down beside him and, as she'd done back home whenever one of the little kids kicked their blankets off at night, she laid the cloth across his body. He shifted in unconsciousness, pulling the blanket tighter around him. Obsidian island lied just outside of the tropical climate of most of the Fire Nation, being one of the outlying islands. At night, it still cooled down enough to need a blanket.

She stayed there for a moment longer, watching his face relax further into sleep. Then, glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she leaned in and pressed her lips against the side of his forehead. "Sleep well. I know you're tired, too," she whispered.

He didn't stir.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Waiting was the most irritating part of their journey.

Katara knew Appa and the others were likely to do another sweep over the island at some point. Sokka would search for her for as much time as he could spare. If he was alone in his search while Toph and Aang practiced their earthbending somewhere safe, he would have at least a few days dedicated to finding her.

Across the campfire, burning again thanks to a few new planks of wood and some firebending, Zuko sat on a rock, his gold eyes fixed on the horizon. His leg bounced with agitation, and his fingers twitched. Now and then, Katara thought she saw sparks flying free of his fingertips, but whenever she would look over to confirm her suspicions, Zuko's hands would be tightly clamped down over the rocks, as if they could control whatever fire was burning inside him.

The tension remained high all day, and their vigil didn't waver. Katara spent the better part of the morning camouflaging the water tribe boat with some palm trees and driftwood. It would be visible to anyone who took time to look for it, but not immediately obvious to the boats passing by.

The camouflage came in useful when a watercraft did pass by. The pleasure barge appeared so suddenly that they were left with no time to hide.

Zuko jumped off his rock and into a fighting stance. Katara tried to act naturally by waving at the boat, smiling as if she was on vacation. Some of the passengers out on deck waved back. No one seemed to realize they were the insurgents from the wanted posters.

"What was that? We could've been killed," Zuko hissed once the boat had disappeared from sight.

"It's been long enough. The people on this island have mostly forgotten us. From this distance, they probably can't see our faces. Besides, you said yourself that no one's expecting us to still be hiding out on this island when we're wanted criminals."

"That doesn't mean you have to wave to them. They're our enemies, in case you haven't forgotten."

She sighed. "I liked you better when you were asleep."

Looking like a child who'd just been sent to his room without supper, Zuko perched himself on the rock he'd been sitting on all day and continued staring out to sea, forehead wrinkled in irritation.

A few more boats passed by through the day, each giving enough warning by their smokestacks for them to hide with the water tribe boat.

The sun had fallen from the sky by the time Zuko spotted something on the horizon.

Katara was busy cooking another fish meal, so it was Zuko's sudden movement that drew her attention. She turned, her feet instinctively taking her to the safety of the boat. She froze in her tracks just as quickly when she identified the object of his attention. "It's Appa!"

Zuko ran to the edge of the beach while she waved her arms in the air. "It's too dark for that," he told her as he shifted positions. She recognized his stance from the time where he'd been tracking them.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, rushing forward just as his fist shot up in the direction, a fireball exploding from his knuckles. The flare traveled high up into the sky, reminiscent of the burning fireballs sent up from catapults. Katara pulled a stream of water from the ocean and shot it up to meet the fireball. Even as far away as it was, she heard it hiss as it guttered out.

"I'm drawing their attention!" Zuko yelled back.

"You're going to drive them away." She continued jumping up and down, wishing there was enough light for them to be seen more easily. "Appa! _Appa!_ Sokka, Toph! _Aang!_"

In the distance, she heard Appa's distinct rumble. She could hear the fear in it. "I told you it was driving them away. Make the campfire bigger so they can see me."

Zuko ran back to the pathetic little flame and urged it to grow. It rose in a column, twice as high as it had gone last night. Their section of beach glowed orange from the intense flames.

Katara continued waving her arms, jumping up and down in an attempt to draw their attention. She could see Appa's pale fur in the dark sky, but she suspected the contrast between her clothes and the beach sand wasn't distinct enough for them to see. They were hanging back, thinking the fireball had come from an enemy.

"We need to think of something else," she said. An arm, hard as iron, coiled around her torso, pinning her arms to her side. "Hey!"

"This is the best way to get their attention." He sent another flare up. With her arms pinned, she couldn't bend the seawater up to extinguish this one.

Closer now than before, Appa, evaded the sphere, growling. Katara struggled against Zuko's hold.

"Let go, that's not funny."

"I'm not trying to be funny." Another flare. Katara squealed.

They were flying closer now, drawn by the apparent struggle in the sand. Katara kicked Zuko's shin with her heel, and he jerked his leg back, stunned.

It was like being enemies again. Fighting became, in an instant, the most natural thing in the world for her. Adrenaline flooding her veins, she actually put up a decent fight with just her legs. She dragged a thin stream of water out of the ocean as they waves lapped against her toes, then used it to create a ring of ice around Zuko's ankle.

This threw him off for a moment, and she used his lapse to elbow him in the stomach. The firebender fell backwards, hitting the sand with a thud and a crack as the ice around his ankle gave way. His lip twisted in a snarl, and he rolled back to his feet.

Arms free now, she pulled a rush of water from the ocean and let it slam into him like a jet. He held his ground until the last second, shooting fire in a narrow stream from his fist. Steam poured across the beach, obscuring Appa from her view.

"What is your problem?" she demanded as the jet of water shot him up against the rocks.

"I'm being practical. What's _your _problem?"

"You attacked me!"

"To get them to notice us!"

"A little _warning _would've been nice."

"I told you what I was doing."

She used the water from her jet to freeze him to the rocks. Ice coiled around his arms and legs first, then his torso, not stopping until all but his face was covered in a translucent layer of frozen water.

"Katara!"

She turned towards Sokka's voice, then jumped back, surprised at how close Appa was. The flying bison landed, scattering thousands of sand particles into the air with a swish of his tail. Sokka extended his arm out, reaching for her hand.

Behind her, steam poured from the ice prison Zuko was trapped in. All at once, the ice gave way, a shuddering crack reverberating against the stone cliffs surrounding their section of beach.

"Katara, come on," Sokka said. "He's getting out."

She almost left him on the beach, until she remembered that Aang really, _really _needed a firebending teacher. "No, wait, he's on our side."

"Are you blind, Katara? He just tried to kill you."

"It was an act," she explained quickly. "To get your attention. It was his idea."

From the other side of the beach, Zuko called out to them. "It worked, didn't it?"

"It was still a stupid idea."

Sokka looked between the two of them, confused. "Wait, so you're saying that the guy who's been trying to kill us for the past half a year suddenly decided to join up with Team Avatar?"

"Makes perfect sense to me," came a new voice. Before a name even came to her mind, Katara had torn more water from the sea and erected a wall of ice between her and the speaker.

"No way. Just, no way."

Zuko seemed, if anything, more shocked at the identity of the speaker. "Ty Lee? What are you doing with the Avatar's friends? Where's Azula?"

"I left Azula. I'm an outlaw now." Katara sensed the pride in the circus freak's voice at the words, but she couldn't figure out why. The tiny acrobat had never shown any indication of treacherous behavior, nor any inclination to join their ragtag bunch. _Why would she leave Azula? _"Sokka, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I had no other leads! How else was I supposed to find you when I didn't have any idea where you might be? You're lucky it's us that found you and not Azula."

"You brought that . . . that・"

"Okay, enough yelling," Zuko said, his hands in the air in a peacemaking gesture. "We all obviously have a lot to talk about, but right now isn't the time to do it. You're right. Azula could come by at any moment, and we'd all be killed, so let's just focus on getting away from here."

"I am not letting him ride on Appa," Sokka said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

The flying bison seemed to have other ideas. With Ty Lee and Sokka still on his back, Appa trudged through the sand to Zuko. The firebender edged back, uneasy at the giant animal's sudden approach. He didn't reach immediately for his firebending, though, as he would have a few months ago. Instead, he retreated all the way to the edge of the cliffs, until his back was pressed against the sharp black stone that gave the island its name.

Appa made a deep rumbling sound in the back of his throat, then extended his tongue out. The slimy muscle ran all the way up Zuko's body, from legs to face, and the mere force of the tongue knocked him to the ground. He sat up, covered in spit and slime. Appa licked him again.

"Call him off," Zuko yelled, wiping his arms across his moistened shirt. The only thing that did was get his arms covered in the same sticky mess.

Katara started giggling. "I think he likes you."

"Well, I _don't_," Sokka said. "He's been our enemy for way too long to just give it all up now."

Appa licked the firebender again, much to Zuko's dismay.

Ty Lee, hair burned off after their fight on Azula's ship, spoke up. "No, he really does like you. Most of the time, animals are wary of people with negative auras."

"Well, isn't that wonderful."

"Sokka, I know it's a lot to take in, but I've been traveling with Zuko ever since we got captured in Ba Sing Se. We can trust him." She turned to the firebender, dripping bison spit all over the beach. "Even if he does come up with stupid ideas."

"But it _worked_, didn't it?"

"And he's right. We do have a lot of stuff to cover, and it's going to be a long flight."

Her brother sighed, giving up. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only sane person in our group."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

"Just follow the sound of my voice," Aang said.

Toph wanted to let go of the tree she'd been clinging to ever since she'd run into him, but her arms seemed tethered around the trunk. Without her seismic senses to guide her, she could very easily drown or break a leg in this wretched swamp. _Can you even _break _a leg in the Spirit World? _she wondered, forcing her fingers to lift up from the patches of bark they were clinging to. She sat down on the sloping root of the tree, dangling her feet into the water. Her toes didn't touch the mud beneath the surface no matter how far she stretched them.

"It's okay, Toph," Aang promised. "It's not too deep. You'll be able to stand up."

She switched her hands to the thick root she'd been sitting on, coiling her arms around it in case he was wrong. She still had to bite back a scream when she splashed down into the bog and felt the water rise up to her neck. She stood on her tiptoes, not something she'd often done back when her feet were her main source of sensory input, but the odd stance only made her feet slip deep into the mud. Her arms flailed of their own accord as she tried to wrench herself free of the muck.

"I thought you said it wasn't that deep," she snapped.

"Sorry. I forgot, you're shorter than me."

She was getting a better grip on her surroundings now. Part of being blind was being able to adapt to situations where senses weren't always reliable. She'd done that in the Si Wong Desert, using her ears even more than normal so she didn't wander off or bump into anyone. She'd learned to judge the distance between fireballs according to the heat coming off them. Before she'd developed her seismic sense, she'd learned how to feel the textures against her skin to identify everything she touched, and how to hear the echoes her movements made to judge how much room she had before running into a wall. Even smell, the least used of all human senses, had helped her take meaning from the world around her.

These well-developed, normal senses would have to help her out of here now.

She moved through the stagnant water, spreading her toes as far as they could go so her feet didn't sink in so far. Her ears kept track of the loud splashes she made as she moved, and when she heard the droplets hit something solid, she reached her hands out to grab whatever was in front of her. The rough texture of the object, and the splinters it left in her palms, told her it was another root.

"That's good, just keep following me," Aang said as she maneuvered around the obstacle. The water became a bit more shallow as she traversed it.

"So how's the Spirit World been for you?" she asked, hoping for something more out of the air bender than the simple encouragements he was giving out so far.

There was a note of disappointment in the Avatar's voice. "It's okay, I guess. I miss you guys, but there's plenty of stuff for me to do here. I've already spent a lot of time with the other Avatars. At first, I thought they'd be disappointed in me. I let the whole world down, first for a hundred years, then again at Ba Sing Se. But they understood."

"So, they're not mad at you, or anything?"

A beat of silence went by. Toph guessed Aang had probably gestured in answer before realizing that, without her bending, she couldn't see. "No. They're not mad. They were actually relieved."

"Why?" She crawled over a thicker piece of wood, perhaps a hollowed out log, or an overgrown root.

"They said that since I made it to the Spirit World okay that the Avatar cycle wasn't broken. So there's still hope for the world."

_It's a little late for hope, _she thought, tilting her chin up as she passed through another deep patch. _The only thing we've got left is action. _"So, the next in the cycle is supposed to be a waterbender, right? Do you know who it is?"

"They do tests in the world of the living. We won't know until then."

She almost lost her footing as a dozen blades of grass grasped at her ankle, but she managed to rip free of the muddy plants and stagger forward.

"We're almost there. I think I see the gate you came in through."

_I don't remember a gate, _she thought, disquiet rippling through her as her arms sent ripples across the water. She paused in the water, making her body go as still as possible. The strange, echoing language that had been whispering ever since her arrival here still played, but something felt wrong about the mangled words. Before, they had sounded otherworldly and musical. Now, a darker note pervaded these murmurs, a tension in the garbled speech that made her feel cold.

"Come on, Toph. I don't know how long the portal will stay open."

She was listening so intently on the malevolent whispers that it was a few moments before she realized something else: an absence.

_Where are the bugs? _she wondered. _Where are the frogs? I heard them just a few minutes ago. _

"Toph, c'mon. Seriously."

Was it her sudden paranoia making her imagine the odd echo of Aang's voice? It seemed almost as if something was speaking the same words, almost in unison, but just a fraction of a second off. As if someone was whispering the words he was supposed to say in his ear.

In the ninety-degree swamp, Toph began to feel cold.

_He hasn't said anything about Katara, or about how much he misses Appa. He should've, by now. _

Her lips formed the words, but no sound came out.

"What did you say?" Aang's voice asked, the near-silent whisper coming an instant before his words.

Fear was an emotion she'd seldom felt. Having become an earthbending champion in Gaoling and facing Azula and her intense flames, Toph thought she'd trained herself out of feeling fear. But it crept in now, icy vines coiling around her chest, cutting off her air. Blinded, the swamp had seemed like a hopelessly vast stretch of land, but with adrenaline flooding her veins, the space around her seemed to close up, the roots reaching out with their knobby fingers to grab at her.

"Didn't you say something, Toph? What's wrong?"

Her unspoken words from before exploded from her lips. "You're not Aang!"

His voice seemed even more distorted in the wake of her outburst. "What are you saying?"

There was a sound, separate from the ever-present voices. It came from just behind where Aang's voice had been coming from, and it was so distinct from all the other sounds of the swamp that her ears zeroed in on it instantly.

It was similar to a cracking sound, dozens of cracks all forming in ice, but too rapid and even to match that description exactly. In fact, there was only one word that came to mind, a word almost as grotesque and horrifying as the sound itself.

_Scuttle_. The sound was like a massive centipede scuttling across the trees.

Toph turned and ran.

Without her seismic sense, her feet caught on every damned thing beneath the water: roots, submerged grass, even rocks embedded in the mud. She kicked them all away, wincing at the bruises her movements caused on her sensitive feet.

Vines whipped at her arms as she sloshed through the stagnant water, flaying the skin off her arms as she ran. At least, she assumed they were vines. For all she knew, they might have been snakes, or even the tail of some giant rodent. It didn't matter; she bolted in a straight line through the water, not caring about the blood and plant matter running down her arms.

Her feet came down on a carpet of moss under the water, and slipped out from under her. Her face sank beneath the water, and she gasped in a pint of water in panic. Underwater, her body writhed, trying to cough out the unwelcome fluid, only succeeding in flooding her lungs with more water. All the while, the water around her seemed to twist, stirred by something else moving beneath the surface. She kicked wildly, not sure if she was doing it to try to find air again, or if she was trying to kick away the monster she knew was in the water with her.

As she struggled beneath the surface, she began to lose her concept of where the surface actually _was_. If she'd been able to see, it might've been different. If she'd just been able to see the light, whatever that looked like, shining down through what she assumed to be murky water, she would have some bearing on where she was.

Instead, narrow wisps of something・・the legs of the scuttling monster chasing after her・・tickled her torso, tracing a circular pattern across her chest. She kicked at the creature, recoiling as her toes connected with what felt almost like solid steel. All the while, more sour water poured down her throat and invaded her lungs.

The thing wrapped its legs around her, tightening its elongated body around her lungs and forcing out what little air might be left in them. She threw a fist at the tough plate of its body, knowing it was useless, but unable to do anything else.

_Its face. It must have a face if it was talking. _Faces were beacons of weakness. Eyes with the consistency of jelly could be punctured or scooped out with a well-placed finger. Teeth were easy to knock loose if you hit them right. Someone had once told her that breaking someone's nose would cause sufficient pain to disable them, however temporarily. But with her own eyes useless, she had no hope of spotting this monster's face.

The primordial voices of the swamp continued in the water, louder than they had been on the surface, except that now the words made sense to her ears.

_Of course. They were coming from under the water the whole time. That's why they were so garbled. _She struggled to listen, fighting against the panic in her lungs. Everything around her seemed to slow as the oxygen in her body was used up. The pain in her body reached a crescendo as the centipede's steel segments stiffened around her.

The words around her were becoming clearer as she sank deeper into unconscious. _This must be what death feels like. I never expected it to hurt so much._

_Have . . . have . . . to choose . . . choose . . . choose . . . _ Half a dozen voices reverberated with this chorus as her arms went limp. What limited sensation remaining in her body fled to her core, so the only thing she felt, or heard, was the strained pumping of her compressed heart. Agony tore at her like knives.

_Have to . . . choose . . . _

_ Chose what? _she demanded, impatient to the very end.

_Have to choose . . . the truth. Choose the truth . . ._

She could feel her heartbeat slow, as the fiery pain dulled. _What truth? _she asked.

Before the voices could answer, the answer rushed into her mind.

_The truth . . . is that I'm still alive._

A final jolt of agony pulsed through her heart, and everything around her went away.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

The news of Toph's injuries troubled her the whole way back.

"We weren't expecting to be attacked; the plan was to get in and out, and see if we could find you on the way. If I'd known Mai would be there, I wouldn't have risked it."

"How many days has it been since she was hit?" Katara asked.

Sokka counted on his fingers, mouthing the numbers to himself. At last, he shrugged. "A little over a week, I think. We got her to a medicine woman, up on one of these islands, and they say she'd mostly out of danger, but you should probably have a look."

Katara nodded, absorbed in thought. If Toph had survived this long without her help, any internal bleeding or fatal hemorrhaging had long been dealt with. Infection was still a risk, however, and she didn't like the image the words "medicine woman" put in her mind. It made her think Toph was lying in some dirty cave while a wrinkled old crone smeared plants all over her belly, chanting in strange languages.

Her worry kept her distracted from the questions that had been gnawing at her ever since she'd been captured at the catacombs. Like what had happened to Aang.

Sokka hadn't said anything, though, so she'd assumed he'd escaped Azula's grasp, just like always. After all, the Dai-Li had only pinned him down with their rock fists. An Avatar would be able to break free easily with earthbending.

_That must be it, _she thought. _Sokka would've warned me if something bad had happened to him. _

Appa angled down, getting ready to land on the nearest island, slowing as they drew closer to the ground. After so much traveling, Katara was used to the turbulent aspects of landing. She wrapped her fingers around the loops in Appa's saddle and crouched down, preparing for impact. When they hit, Zuko tumbled forward, his face slamming into the leather saddle. He sat up and rubbed his nose, wincing, as she repressed a smile.

"All right, where's Toph?" she asked, climbing down and giving Appa an affectionate pat behind the horns.

"She's inside." The muscles in Sokka's face had tightened, making him look almost wary. Katara ran up the stone steps, shying away from Ty Lee when the little acrobat skipped up alongside her. Sokka seemed to trust her, however uneasily, but the circus performer had been Azula's pet, and the princess was not above teaching her friends the basics of deceit.

She made it to the house, an ancient, rickety thing with cracked shingles, peeling paint, and an herb garden so lively and colorful that the contrast between them hit harder than a hammer.

Katara shoved through the door, not realizing she should have knocked until after she was already inside. Even with the updates Sokka had given her during the flight, she was still shocked at what she saw.

Toph was awake, her feet dangling off the edge of a stone table, half a sandwich in her left hand. The other hand, and now a foot, were pressed tight against the rock bench. After a moment, a wide grin split her face and she jumped down. "Katara, you're back!"

"Sokka told me you were unconscious," she said, extending her arms as the earthbender plopped down to the floor.

"Yeah, I just・" Her face froze, and her hand lifted, finger stabbing at the air behind her. "Watch out, Ty Lee's right behind you!"

"I forgot to mention," came a new voice, startling them both. "Ty Lee joined up with us before you woke up."

_Zuko's uncle? _she thought, remembering how the bearded man had come down with Aang to the catacombs. Iroh sat in the corner of the room, an inconspicuous figure despite his size.

Another thought followed the moment of recognition, and Katara felt her first chill of apprehension since climbing on Appa. _Where's Aang? Why hasn't he come running up to me yet? _

Sokka was still outside. Most likely, he was lecturing Zuko on the rules of Team Avatar. _Or going to get Aang. _She turned back to Toph, who was glaring off into space, then to Ty Lee and Iroh. It seemed like all her old enemies had suddenly joined her side. With her, Toph, and Sokka, their numbers would be even if their new teammates turned on them. But even wasn't good enough. "I'll be right back. I'm going to go see if Sokka needs help unpacking."

Ty Lee's bald head and Iroh's wrinkled face turned toward her, question marks dotting their eyes. Katara turned away, plowing through the door.

_The Avatar is a baby somewhere in the North Pole by now, _Azula had said, back in that dim cell in the ship.

_Azula always lies. _

_ I don't need to convince you, _Azula had said. _It's true._

_ Azula always lies, Zuko said so . . ._

The crimson sunset blinded her as she staggered out of the building, and she lifted one dark hand to block the fiery light. Her feet caught on the uneven stone, and her face hit granite. Sticky fluid ran down her cheek and seeped into her left eye as she righted herself.

"Katara?" The voice squeaked as she shambled over the stones, but she recognized it as Sokka's. _The voice he used to use when we were kids, and he trying not to get in trouble with dad. _"What happened?"

"Where is Aang? What happened to him?"

His eyebrows tilted in the other direction, making him look like a wounded polar bear dog cub. His mouth fell open slightly, but the only sound that came out was a hoarse rattle.

Katara snatched his shoulders and shook him. "What happened to Aang?"

"I was going to tell you after you'd had a chance to talk to everyone . . ." he whispered.

"Tell me what?"

Out of nowhere, Sokka began to cry.

The abrupt outburst startled her. In the time since the warriors had left the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka had toughened up and outgrown most of his childish attributes, tears included. Katara could count on one hand the number of times she'd actually seen him cry since that day.

She knew. She knew without being told. In her mind, she could almost see how the fight in the catacombs had panned out after she'd been taken.

Zuko would've been captured next, since he'd been on the ship with her. That would've left Aang alone to face Azula and dozens of Dai-Li agents.

_The Avatar is a baby somewhere in the North Pole by now. _

"We weren't with him when it happened," Sokka said, voice distorted by the sobs breaking free of his lungs.

"Oh, shit," Zuko whispered, the blood slithering out of his face.

Shards of ice pooled in her stomach, freezing her from the inside out.

"We got there after . . . The body . . . Azula had burned almost everything, except his glider. There was f-fire all over the catacombs; we couldn't stay. Katara, I'm sorry . . ."

The ice weaving its way through her body shattered all at once, and her legs jerked to the side without a conscious command. Blood continued to run down her face, from where she'd hit her head on the stone steps. She didn't care.

Thousands of trees wrapped around the broken-down old house, a great, shady mass. Her legs carried her past the first line of trees, then the next, skipping over fallen logs, rocks, and shrubs. Thorns scraped at her thighs, and more sticky fluid ran down her legs.

"Katara, wait!" someone called from the steps. Her ears heard the words, but didn't deliver them to her mind as her toe got caught on a rock. Her body flew forward, into a rosebush. Thorns buried themselves in her arms and face, and red blood spattered against the red flowers.

She didn't care.

Her body lifted itself up and ran deeper into the woods. Where the trees were thin enough, the bloody sunset stabbed at her eyes and blinded her. More than once, this caused her to fall. Bruises swelled up on her hands, knees, and even her face. She didn't care.

Even when the sun didn't blind her, her vision would blur with budding tears. They overflowed and mingled with the blood, running down her face and dripping over the undergrowth. She didn't care.

_The Avatar is a baby somewhere in the North Pole by now. _

Her skin burned, and she felt fire explode in her lungs, making it impossible to breath. Her throat let out a keening wail of agony as the flames tried to claw their way out of her throat.

A root, concealed by the spindly fingers of another rosebush, snatched her ankle and dragged her down. The cool green leaves hit her face with the force of a club, and her new water skin flew from her shoulders, the strap tangling around a branch above her. Water started pouring out of the hole left by the sharp branches, splashing down into the dry dirt and sinking into the soil. She didn't care.

Her hands dug into the dirt as she tried to sit up, but as she dragged herself across the ground, the pain that had been absent up until now exploded across her body, crackling through her nerves like bolts of lightning. She tried to tell herself that she didn't care.

Everything burned fiercely. Exposed to the crisp air, the lacerations left by the trees stung and bled. But that wasn't the worst pain, not by a long shot. Another bolt of agony shot up her leg as she tried to move it, and her burning throat cried out again in shock.

The earth trembled beneath her, and she sobbed as the dual pain of her body and heart became too much to bear. Several shaky seconds passed before it occurred to her that it might not by the ground shaking, but her whole body.

What few patches of sunlight that had illuminated the sky only minutes ago had winked out of existence, leaving her in darkness. In the shade of the trees, she couldn't see the moon. Or was there even a moon tonight? The moon had been full when she'd been looking for her mother's killer. Had that many days passed already? It seemed absurdly dark.

The blackness didn't distract her from the pain for long. Even in the dim light that remained to her, she could see the crooked angle of her foot, and how the flesh around her ankle had swelled since she'd fallen.

_Aang . . . Aang's gone . . . _

Her foot throbbed, and more tears filled up her eyes with each agonizing pulse.

_. . . baby somewhere in the North Pole by now . . ._

_ Gone . . . My Aang is gone . . ._

_ . . . fire all over the catacombs . . . _

Her hands shook as she reached for her ankle. She thought about healing it before she remembered how her new water skin had ruptured, punctured by the branches. As the realization seeped in, she dropped her hands to the ground and closed her eyes.

_You left Aang to burn, _part of her mind accused her. _You're weak. So what if your stupid hands were burned? You could've stayed conscious long enough to help him, but instead, you let him die. You're weak._

She didn't argue with that.

Blood poured from every inch of her body, seeping out of her like water seeping out of an animal hide that had never been properly waterproofed. The sticky fluid stained the Fire Nation dress Azula had put her in back on the ship. _Good riddance. _

When darkness fell, the temperature dropped. With cool air above and soil sapping the heat from her body, her body cooled with the forest. At first, she tried to fight the uncomfortable chill, curling up so that her arms were sandwiched between her face and her stomach. But eventually, the cold began to creep in, wrapping its numbing tentacles around her battered body. The broken thoughts faded from her mind as the numbness swaddled her body like a fleece blanket around a newborn.

The last thing that came to her before the world went away was a simple, solemn prayer. _Spirits, please don't let me wake up again._

Author's Note

_Thanks for sticking with the story so far, everyone, and a special thanks to all the reviewers who've remained faithful to my story since chapter one. I just wanted to say that I've got a few different ideas for how the next few chapters are going to go, and I'd very much appreciate it if you'd tell me what you loved/hated about this chapter or any of the previous chapters before I make any concrete decisions on what I'm going to write. All comments are welcome, the more critical, the better. I'd also like to know what you all think of how I've represented the characters. I'm trying to stay true to their personalities as much as possible, so if any of their actions seem too outrageous for who they were in the series, let me know, and I will work on that. Hope to hear from you all soon, and I hope to post a new chapter in the next couple days. _


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

A dozen torches swept through the forest, wavering pinpricks of light casting eerie shadows across the leaves. Between the water tribe warriors, Sokka, Toph, and his Uncle, it should've been easy to find a single distraught teenager, should've taken no more than a few minutes of searching.

Zuko had no torch of his own. There had been only ten lying around the healer's hut, and with everyone out looking, the shortage had meant he and his uncle had to sustain their own flames. The constant exertion might have bothered him if he hadn't thought the situation was so dire.

But it was. Katara had run off into the woods, and the general consensus had been that she'd be back within a couple hours, to take shelter with the rest of them before dark. That had been over four hours ago, and the sun had long since set.

_How far could she have gone? _he wondered, stepping gingerly over a bulbous tree root. _There was enough blood on her trail to lure all sorts of beasts. She can't have gone far. _They'd first noticed the blood a few feet into the woods, where she'd darted into the trees. All had assumed it was the blood from the gash on her forehead, from where she'd hit her face on the stone steps. But as the spotty trail had wound further into the woods, anxiety settled over the group, followed by sickening fear.

Zuko liked to think he was a decent tracker. He had tracked the Avatar all over the world; it stood to reason he'd be able to track a bleeding girl traveling on foot with ease. But during much of his journey between the poles, the sun had illuminated the path before him, making any signs of movement easy to detect. The rampant rumors of flying bison hadn't made finding the group difficult.

Torchlight was a less comfortable ally than the sun, though. The shifting orange flames made every branch and leaf come alive with shadows, and more than once, he mistook this shift for enemy action, and ended up scorching random patches of greenery.

Zuko sidestepped a rosebush, not wanting the tooth-like thorns burying themselves in his calves. He might have ignored it altogether if the badgerfrog hiding beneath it hadn't jumped out and nearly gotten itself roasted. Before his torch exploded into a jet of flame, however, he noticed the opaque fluid running down one of the twigs. He knelt down beside the bush. _Left side, just grazed the thorns. Still wet. _Mentally, he calculated which direction she must've been traveling to scrape up against that part of the rosebush. Once he had ascertained that much, he took a path a few degrees to the west of the direction he'd been heading.

The trees thinned out a bit here, making walking a bit easier. It made sense for her to go this way, following the path of least resistance. The flame hovering above his hand grew, widening his circle of perception in case she was lying nearby.

Her trail was easier to track here. The rosebush she'd run into must've cut deep, to leave a trail of blood this distinct. Drops of it stained the tall grass, and a bloody swipe marked a tree trunk where, in a moment of exhaustion, she'd paused to rest. Like the rosebush, the blood on the trunk glistened wetly when his flame danced beside it.

A bird shrieked in the distance, startling him enough to make his flame go out. Grumbling, he took a deep breath and rekindled the flame in his other hand, to give his right arm a rest.

That was when he saw her new water skin hanging by its strap in the trees above.

_No, _he thought, fear coiling in his stomach. Katara may have been a master waterbender, but without a water source, she had no way to heal herself, no way to fight back if an enemy came upon her. She would never leave her element behind by choice.

He stepped forward, eyes fixed on the brown hide as clear drops of Katara's bending water dripped from the hole left by the trees. He was so focused on the destroyed skin that he didn't noticed the camouflaged root below until he tumbled over it and slammed into the ground. The impact left his ears ringing, and several seconds passed before he could sit up. He lifted his hand to the side of his face, wincing as he pressed it against the new bruise. In spite of the rough impact, he was surprised when his hand came back bloody. He stared at the fluid, black in the darkness, then felt his face, trying to detect where the blood was coming from. In his quick inspection, he found no lacerations, least of all any that could explain so much blood. A chilling thought occurred to him, and he looked at the ground where he'd fallen.

A scarlet puddle marred the black soil, with a diameter of about a foot. One edge of the puddle had smeared, as if something had been dragged through it. His eyes automatically followed the trail, only stopping when he saw the limp figure beside one of the rosebushes.

_No, _he thought. _Not now, not her. _He crawled over to the girl, the muscles in his throat constricting with something other than fear. He reached his hand over to her shoulder, covered in blood like everything else.

She didn't stir at his touch.

_No, no, no . . . _He shook her a little, his fingers sticking to her smooth skin as the blood smeared all over his hands. "Katara. Katara, wake up." He turned her over so she was facing up, and laid his unburned ear over her chest, listening, listening . . .

He heard a weak _thump _followed by a gut-wrenching breath, and thanked Agni she was still alive. He stood up and opened his mouth to call the others. "I found her! She's over here!" He made a new fire and let it pulse a few times to distinguish him from the other ten torches. As soon as the other flickering specks began to converge on his location, he knelt down beside Katara again, and lifted one of her eyelids with his thumb. Her lapis lazuli eyes registered no awareness even as he prodded at her face.

All her wounds bled, but it was her ankle that was most troubling. It had broken at such an angle that her feet seemed to slant backwards, and he suspected if she lifted her leg, the foot would flop and dangle in the air, disconnected from the bones in her leg.

_Nothing I can do about that, _he thought, checking for other wounds. The laceration that had left the puddle of blood turned out to be the deep gash left by the rosebushes. _Done in by a root and some thorns. Who ever said plants were harmless? _He shook his head and took the bandages he'd brought out of his pocket. After much begging, Sokka had convinced the healer that by the time they found his sister, she would likely need to first aid. Everyone had been given a roll of bandages to cover up the worst of the injuries, in the event that she needed them.

He wrapped the bindings around her calf, applying pressure just as the healer's acolyte had suggested. The others were closer now, their torches illuminating the forest around him. One of the torchbearers ran faster than the others, his entrance punctuated by a sharp question. "Is she okay?"

"No. We need to get her back to the healing hut." He picked Katara up and slung her body across his back, so her arms were draped over his shoulder and her legs rested at arm length. "Stay close. It's going to be a long walk, and I won't be able to carry her that far on my own."

He started walking, Sokka on his heels. "Her leg . . ."

"I know." He made a concerted effort to step _over _the root that had crippled Katara, then continued, moving as fast as he could without jostling her. Her blood seeped through his shirt and made the fabric cling to his back.

The trek back seemed even longer than the walk here, and as Zuko tired, he reluctantly handed the waterbender over to her brother, and let a new flame rise up from his fingertips, a circle of light spreading around them. Sokka hurried through the woods, almost outpacing him even with the weight of his sister.

"Thanks for this," Zuko said.

"For what?"

"For letting me stay. I expected it to be a lot harder to earn your trust after all I've put you through."

Sokka moved his shoulders in what might have been a shrug, if he hadn't been overburdened with Katara's weight. "She trusts you. That's a hard thing for her, especially with people from the Fire Nation. Our mother . . ."

"She told me."

Sokka nodded as if this didn't surprise him. "It tore her up more than it did me. She and my dad both saw the aftermath. They said she'd been burned to a crisp."

"It's the surest way to . . . make sure the job is finished."  
>"The point is, if she trusts you, then I do, too."<p>

"And the others?"

"Toph never faced you directly, so she probably won't be averse to having you join us. The warriors might. They're from the Southern Water Tribe, and they still remember how much we've lost to the Fire Nation. I can't imagine your uncle would have any problem having you here; he speaks so fondly of you. And Ty Lee seemed happy to see you."

_In spite of the electrical burns? _he wondered. When the now-bald acrobat had spoken and smiled at him, he'd suspected she was concealing the resentment she felt behind her apparent cheer. It had been her own decision to leave Azula, but, indirectly or not, it was his fault she'd ever had to consider it. He'd expected her to blame him.

Zuko recognized this patch of trees, and the glimpses of gray stone peeking through the branches. "We're close."

Sokka sped up, burning through whatever was left of his energy to plow through the last layer of trees.

The old woman who'd identified herself as the master healer peered through the door as they ran toward the house. A frown settled in on her wrinkled face, but she stepped aside and held the door for them as they brought Katara in.

Sokka laid her down on the table and stepped back, giving the healer room to do her work. The withered woman started by shooing them out of the room. "She's cut up all over, and I need to cut apart this dress to get at some of her injuries. Everybody out."

Zuko hesitated, unable to look away from Katara's face. Even in sleep, her eyes dripped tears, and her lips were pinched together in discomfort. Her dark skin was a shade lighter, from the loss of blood, but to Zuko, it seemed as if her spirit had leaked out of her and been abandoned somewhere in the vast forest beyond these walls.

The healer picked up her cane and waved it in the air, her intention made more obvious by the growing scowl on her face. Zuko took one last look at the waterbender's face and evacuated the room.

Ta Min

"Earth beats Fire," Lazuli said, her voice solemn in spite of her victory. She picked up the metal tray up from the table and held it out.

Ta Min stared at the shiny platter, a lump rising in her throat. On it were several of the princess's favorite foods: komodo chicken with lava sauce, spiced tea, even rare chocolate from their conquered enemies in the Earth Kingdom.

_Tazia said she was in a better mood, _Ta Min thought, taking the tray. Her freckled face reflected in the dark mirror of the tea, and she saw that her eyes were wide with fright. _I must never show fear in front of the princess. It's a rule. _But barely twelve and still unused to her new position as one of Princess Azula's handmaids, bravery was not one of her most dominant traits.

"Just knock and wait for her to address you. If she doesn't say anything, just tell her you'll leave her food outside the door for her to eat at her leisure." The senior handmaid, Tazia, patted her shoulder, her face as blank as the face of a statue. Tazia was nearly thirty now, and had seen young girls like her come and go. Ever distant, the comforting gesture carried more weight than anything else in the world.

Hands shaking, she stood up and turned down the hallway where Azula had locked herself in her room. _Bravery, composure, duty, _she chanted to herself._ Bravery, composure, duty. _

No one else was in the hallway. People had been avoiding it ever since someone had seen Azula's door glow red with heat, fearing that even walking in the same half of the castle as the princess would provoke her. The door no longer glowed red, but as Ta Min approached, sounds infiltrated her ears and weaved their way into her thoughts.

The sound wavered like vibrato on a flute, but so stark and exposed that it made her wince to hear it. As the sound abruptly cut off, she heard a shuddering breath from within the princess's chambers. Her knees locked beneath her, and the tea cup rattled as her hands shook the tray it was settled on.

The keening wail resumed in force, a sound like a screeching dodo. Ta Min almost turned and walked back to beg her senior handmaids to give Azula her dinner. If weakness wasn't so abhorred in the Fire Nation, she would have.

Instead, she lifted a trembling hand to the door. "Princess Azula, you're dinner is here."

The sounds quieted behind the door. "Just a moment."

_Thank Agni, _she thought. _She's going to be civil. _

"You may come in," the princess said, sounding much more composed.

When Ta Min entered, the first thing she noticed was the smell of smoke. It saturated the room, a thick hazy scent reminiscent of war and coal mines. Singed curtains decorated the garbage pail beside Azula's dresser, as well as what might have been a burnt pillow, charred book, and the remnants of a woven tapestry.

The comforter on the bed, too large to be disposed of in the trash bin, was singed off in one corner, and all the rest was covered in a fine layer of ash. Azula's clothes, standard princess garb, were dusted gray with lighter bits of ash that had floated around in the room looking for a surface to stick to. In fact, the only thing in her room that hadn't been burned seemed to be the piece of parchment she held in her manicured hands.

Ta Min edged forward and placed the fine, metal tray in front of Azula, as she'd done a hundred times before. She bowed deeply, making the ceremonious gesture with her hands, and retreated.

"Ta Min, I have a question for you," Azula said, just as she reached the door.

Hearing her name spoken by the princess startled her, and she jumped. _Bravery, composure, duty. _"Yes, princess?"

"What does a woman of your station do when another member of your group betrays you and your nation?"

She repeated the question in her head, feeling something in her stomach very much like stage fright. "In my position . . . we would report the behavior to our higher ups to ensure the traitor was dealt with."

"And how would these 'higher-ups' react? How would they deal with the criminal?"

"They would execute them."

Azula's eyes dropped to the letter in her hands. Castle gossip was that it was the note telling of the betrayal of one of Azula's personal guards. "And you would do this, even if the traitor was one of your best friends?"

_No. _"Yes."

"I see. You may be right about that." The princess stood up and walked back and forth across her room, a lioness pacing in her cage. She said nothing else.

"May I go, Azula?" she asked timidly. The firebender paused mid stride, and Ta Min felt the blood slither out of her face. With the slow intensity of a tiger-shark swimming toward its hapless prey, the princess turned.

"What did you just call me?"

Ta Min thought back, wincing as she realized her mistake. "Forgive me, princess, it was a slip of tongue. I meant you no disrespect."

"When speaking to the daughter of the most powerful firebender in the world, and unchallenged ruler of the Fire Nation, is it not expected that all formalities be followed? That all titles are named properly before addressing someone of the royal family?"

"Please, princess, have mercy. Truly, I am honored to serve you in whatever way possible. Please, excuse my rudeness."

"_Rudeness_? You drop all titles and honorifics from my name and name it _rudeness_?" Azula stepped forward, her dark eyes pinning Ta Min's feet to the ground. "Have you forgotten that you are addressing the future Fire Lady, the only remaining heir to one of the greatest Fire Lord's in history?"

"No, princess." Her voice was hoarse.

"Only a moment ago, I asked you how you would expect a traitor to be punished. You said they would be executed. Why then, do you insist on such a derisive lack of respect?"

Her knees shook under her narrow body. "Forgive me."

"Did my father forgive Prince Zuko when he so pitifully begged for his forgiveness? No. Even within the royal family, disrespect is met with harsh punishment and ostracism. How, then, do you expect a waif of common blood to be treated when they display such _rudeness, _as you so brazenly call it?"

There wasn't enough air left in her shriveled lungs to respond. Tears wet her eyes.

"Answer me!" Azula yelled, dropping the parchment at her feet and lifting her by the shoulder. Fiery blades dug into her shoulder under Azula's fingers.

"Please," she begged, breaking. "Please, I'm sorry. I never meant . . . I never . . ." Sobs broke low in her throat as the heat spread down the side of her body. Through her blurred eyes, she saw the unmistakable blue light of Azula's flames, balanced between her nimble fingers. "Have mercy."

So quietly that it was hard to hear over the faint whisper of the flames, Azula said, "This _is _mercy."

For one horrible second, when the blue fire caressed her face, a wave of red agony washed over her. The pain was so sharp and unmistakable that, even while it seared her skin, she thought about all the times she'd seen others get burned. She'd been there for the Agni-Kai between the Fire Lord and the Prince, and for dozens of sparring matches between Azula and other skilled firebenders. Yet in all her life, the most intense burns she'd ever experienced had been from when she'd been too impatient to let her food cool, and burned her tongue. Compared to this, those small discomforts were summer nights and soft kisses.

And then the shocking pain faded, the world disappearing so abruptly that all she had time to think was, _Tazia will have to train in another handmaid. _


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

The news had spread all over the castle, faster than the greedy flames of Azula's fire, and now even the maids shunned this corridor.

Azula's door glowed orange again, as the rumors said it had done this morning. Inside, Mai could hear the hiss of fire being shot across the room in a jet. She waited for the sound to subside before she spoke to the firebender within. "I've come for a visit. Can you let the door cool down for a minute?"

There was a pause on the other side of the door, then a quiet sigh. "You can talk to me from out there. The door's too hot."

Mai crossed her legs and sunk to the floor. "I heard about that girl. The handmaid."

Azula gave no answer.

"Why did you kill her?"

This time, there was a mumbled response. This surprised her, as Azula was not one to mumble anything. In fact, most of the time, her voice was projected and clear, to command without confusion.

"Is it because of Ty Lee?"

Something solid crashed into the metal door, loud enough to startle most people. Mai kept her face as stoic and unmoved as she'd been taught growing up. Sharp footsteps fell across the floor within.

Azula tore open the now-cool door, her face fit to frighten a saber-tooth moose-lion. "Why would I care about that traitor at all? She's been plotting against me this whole time, ever since I rescued her from that pathetic circus."

"Have you ever considered the fact that maybe she was better off there? That maybe she liked balancing on that tightrope, or that she loved all the animals traveling with them?"

"Why would she choose the circus over her best friend?"

"Azula, you cut off all her hair."

"It was burnt!"

"It should've been her decision!" Mai jumped to her feet, in a slip of emotion. "Do you have any _idea _how much her hair meant to her? It set her apart from us, set her apart from everyone. She brushed it, and conditioned it, and took care of it, and you just chopped it all off."

"But it was burnt!"

"Yes, and that would've been a good tool to make her hate Zuko for burning it. The four of us were childhood friends. If she would betray _you _for cutting it off, leaving it burnt would've made her hate Zuko."

"Childhood friends," Azula muttered bitterly, walking back into her room. The ventilation system had removed most of the smoky smell, but there was a nauseating undertone that remained, a smell like someone had taken a candle to hair, but more intense. _That poor girl, _Mai thought, her eyes drifting to the blackened patch of wall where Azula's young handmaid had stood, in her final moments. _This won't happen again. I won't let her do it. _While she thought,Azula went on, speaking in the same tone she used to intimidate her enemies: indirect, almost playful, but with a dark undertone that spoke scrolls. "You speak as if you still consider Zuko a friend, Mai."

"My loyalty lies only with you." _To keep you from torching more servants._

"Glad to hear it. So you'll help me track down the traitor, and when I'm Fire Lord, you'll be part of my council, correct?"

"Yes."

"And you won't feel any regret over killing Ty Lee, or Zuko, or any of our other enemies?"

"No."

"Then I think the matter is settled. That will be all then."

Mai bowed and turned for the door, not wanting, perhaps even fearing, to upset the princess. As she passed through the threshold, her feet stopped moving beneath her. "Azula."

"What is it?"

The words dangled from her tongue, refusing to come out. Mai swallowed thickly and made herself say them, feeling more emotional turbulence than she'd felt in ages. "Ty Lee was my friend, too, you know."

Azula's response was terse, uncaring, empty. "But your loyalty lies with me, yes?"

Mai pivoted on her heel and found her face to face with Azula's commanding face. "_Damn _it, Azula. You think you're the only one torn up about this? You think that roasting innocent servants is going to make everything better for you? You think I wouldn't just love to stick a knife in somebody after what happened?"

"What are you saying, Mai?"

"I'm saying you're acting like a selfish, spoiled brat who, for the first time in her life, didn't get what she wanted, and is throwing a temper tantrum because of it. Can't you at least _act _civilized, like a member of the royal family ought to?"

Too shocked to say anything, Azula just stared, her lower lip curling up into a snarl.

"You have the whole country at your command, and in a few months, the whole world. Are you going to be so immature at your coronation? Are you going to declare the war over only to go around burning people for every slight? Are you such a child that you can't at least be calm in the face of tragedy, that when you face hardship, you sit here and sulk, waiting for someone to pull you out of it? Azula, that's not what makes a good Fire Lord, and you _know _it."

Tears threatened at the edge of Azula's eyes, but they had already swept down Mai's face. In unison, they lifted one had to their face and let the moisture run down their fingertips.

It was the kind of moment that, between close friends, in the relative privacy of the room, a hug should've been exchanged. But Azula was a princess, and the very thought of an embrace made Mai's arms quiver; years of careful conditioning had quashed any need she felt for displays of affection, and after her little brother had been born, no one had offered it to her.

"I will take that into consideration," Azula said, as she closed the door.

Zuko

Zuko didn't sleep that night.

Either the moon had risen and sunk during the day, or it was simply a new moon tonight. Whatever the reason, the darkness that enveloped their sleeping spot matched the black seeds planted in their collective heart.

The sounds of shuffling feet and herbs being ground up in stone bowls scraped against his eardrums, as if someone was rubbing two pieces of sandpaper together next to his head. He lifted his hands to his ears to block out the sound, but the macabre chorus wasn't silent, just muted.

Half an hour after Madame Zolena had kicked everyone out of the cramped house, horrifying snapping sounds exploded from inside. Sokka, sitting across from him and polishing his boomerang, leapt to his feet, startled into action.

"They're just resetting the bones," Zuko had told him, sounding much calmer than he felt. Another sickening snap made him gag on his words, and for a while, all his concentration went to staying rooted in this spot.

Sokka had a harder time staying still. When he wasn't polishing his weapons, he paced up and down the granite steps, looking more like an expectant father than a concerned brother. When he wasn't pacing, he was brushing Momo with a whale-tooth comb from the South Pole. When he wasn't doing that, he was, for some inexplicable reason, picking dry mud from between Appa's toes.

_It's harder on him, _Zuko thought, watching these bizarre rituals with dull fascination._ That's his sister in there. _He winced at another cracking sound, but this one was quieter than the others, probably a rigid branch being snapped in half to be ground into a healing paste. He'd heard willow bark was a good pain reliever.

In a way, it surprised him how much Katara's dreadful state was affecting _him_. Katara was the member of the team he was most familiar with, after weeks of traveling together, but he hadn't really considered the fact that he cared for her on a personal level. Once, he had scorned companionship, even avoiding his uncle to get out of long-winded conversations. After the brutal Agni-Kai with his father, he had shunned all unnecessary contact. He'd spoken no more than necessary to his crew, only received bits of counsel from his uncle, and rarely said a word to outsiders. So it was strange that he felt something for the waterbender who had once been one of his mortal enemies.

Another crack, definitely bone this time. Zuko winced, and watched all the blood slide away from Sokka's features as the water tribe boy plucked a clod of dirt from Appa's toes. _It's going to be okay, _he wanted to say. _When she wakes up, she'll heal herself with her waterbending._

His lips remained sealed shut, as if a layer of glue held them together. In the back of his mind, he knew things would _not _be okay. In fact, with the Avatar dead, Katara shattered by her grief, and Sozin's Comet drawing closer with each passing day, "okay" was the last word in anyone's mind.

Instead of reminding everyone of their impending doom, he resolved to stay silent.

A few hours in, people began to nod off. Toph was the first to drift away, managing only to erect a stone tent around herself before she fell asleep. Most of the water tribe warriors fell asleep soon after, having run out of things to talk about around the dainty fire pit. Supposedly, they were all concerned about Katara, but from their conversation, Zuko gathered they were more worried about losing their status with chief Hakoda than the chance that Katara herself would die. Sokka soon followed, worn out. Ty Lee had crashed hours ago, as soon as Toph had.

Zuko remained awake, unable to drift off as the others had. He knew they were worried, but they were also exhausted. Sokka and Ty Lee hadn't slept in two days, according to what he'd heard when they were flying here. Toph, too, had an excuse, having narrowly escaped death. Zuko could hardly fault the warriors for not worrying much about a girl they only saw as a child. Uncle was inside, standing by to help with whatever the healers asked of him.

The snapping sounds subsided after a time, and all he had to go by was the constant shuffle of the old woman's feet and the staccato footsteps of the acolyte. Occasionally, they would murmur something to one another, but the door would muffle their quiet whispers.

The sun was just peeking above the trees when the acolyte stepped out of the hut. Zuko stood up, every muscle in his body suddenly tense.

"The procedure went well. Her life is out of danger, and her ankle will return to normal in a few weeks."

"Thank Agni."

"Everyone ought to thank you. Madame Zolena said that if you hadn't found her when you did, she would've died from her wounds. She lost enough blood as is."

He nodded, disturbed by the thought. An enemy to a Fire Nation, and long hated by the members of this team, every relationship he could cultivate here was critical. He wanted to tell himself that was the only reason he'd been worried about the waterbender.

It wasn't.

He liked her. Losing her would've been . . . painful.

"Madame Zolena says she still needs to rest," the girl went on. "but if you or your friends want to visit her, that's fine."

"Thank you." He stepped around the acolyte and slipped through the door, wincing as the hinges squealed. The ancient healer glanced up from her cup of tea as he came in, then rose to her feet with a series of creaks and groans. She was gone before he sat down at Katara's bedside.

Her hair lied across the bed like ripples of melted chocolate, and the lighter brown of her skin contrasted sharply with the white sheets. In place of her ruined Fire Nation dress was a pale blue hospital gown, similar in color to her unique, water tribe clothes, which he liked better than the gaudy red silks Azula had dressed her in. Her full lips sat in perfect proportion to the rest of her face, looking soft and inviting, even slackened in sleep.

Several seconds passed before he realized he was staring at them. He looked away, his face warming even though no one else was in the room to see it.

Her hands were folded over her sternum in a formal gesture, almost as if her body was being displayed in a casket. Zuko wound his fingers through one hand and dragged it away from her chest so it sat in a more natural position. Her skin was a few degrees cooler than his, but that didn't worry him so much. Last night, her body had been icy cold in his arms. Now, her hands were almost normal temperature, and comfortable to hold onto. Her skin was softer than he'd imagined.

Sokka came through the door then. "I heard she's okay," he said, walking up to her bedside. His eyes, the same striking color as his sister's, drifted to the hand Zuko was holding onto, and an odd expression crossed the boy's face.

If it bothered him, he didn't say so. Zuko released her hand, but Sokka continued to glance up at the scarred side of his face every few minutes, his brown eyebrows coming together in speculation.

Zuko kept his eyes focused on Katara's sleeping face, wondering how it would break apart when she awoke to the reminder that one of her best friend was dead.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Katara's fingers twitched.

If Zuko hadn't been holding her hand, he wouldn't have noticed the miniscule movement. As it was, he was sure he'd imagined it until her fingers coiled around the palm of his hand. "Katara?"

The waterbender turned her head to the side, groaning. "Aang?"

He winced. _Oh, this isn't going to be a pleasant awakening for her. _He looked out the door, wondering if Sokka was back for his hunting trip yet. He'd left early in the morning, unable to cope with his sister's condition for more than a few minutes. Still, the fact that Sokka trusted him enough to leave him alone with Katara made him feel a bit less of an outcast.

Feeling guilty for crushing her hopes, he said, "No. It's just me, Zuko."

The girl's eyelids twitched, and her plump lips turned down in a frown.

"Don't try to move. You hurt yourself pretty seriously when you ran off."

Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing her lapis lazuli irises. The dull stare she gave him made his throat squeeze shut. "Zuko . . . Of course. Aang's dead, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

Her pupils drifted back to the ceiling above her, examining the patterns made by the knots in the wood. For several minutes, she said nothing, did nothing. She didn't even pull her hand away from his. Zuko glanced away and watched a translucent drop of wax slide down the side of a candle, marking the time that passed. It was three-quarters gone, having burned since this morning.

"Where is everyone?" Katara asked.

"Sokka is out hunting with some of the warriors. Toph is outside practicing her bending."

For the first time, some real emotion swept across her face. "Hunting? How long have I been out?"

"Almost a whole day."

Her eyebrows came together in a line, and she sat up before he could stop her. "That's all?"

"Yes. But you _can't _move. Your ankle's broken, and I spent all of last night listening to the healer's reset it. If you care about me at all, you won't make me listen to that again."

Seeming distracted by the news, she threw off the white sheets, revealing the lower half of her body, uncovered from mid-thigh up due to the nature of hospital gowns. Zuko glanced away again as her hands probed around the edges of the cast, trembling. All at once, she threw herself back down on the bed. "_Shit_."

Zuko stared at her. "Did you just say shit?"

"What am I _supposed _to say? 'What a _happy _day! It's so _great _to be alive.'"

He repressed a smile. "No. If you said that, you'd sound like Ty Lee."

Her eyebrows slanted sharply down, eyes narrowing. "I do _not_. But honestly, what is there to say?"

"Well, you should be glad to be alive. We were worried sick about you."

The angle of her eyebrows shifted, just enough to turn her expression from annoyed to skeptical. "'We?'"

"What? I _was _worried." He dropped her hand, suddenly remembering he'd been holding onto it, and rose to his feet, pacing. "The world may not have the Avatar anymore, but that doesn't mean we've lost. We've still got your waterbending, and Toph's earthbending, and my firebending. So what if we're short an element? The Earth Kingdom and water tribes must've had quite the force behind them to sustain their side of the war this long."

"Are you saying we take out the Fire Lord, not to mention Azula, without Aang's help?"

"Yes. That's _exactly _what I'm saying. Think about it, Katara. If we can get rid of both of them, the Fire Nation will crumble. And then, the banished prince they all seem to have forgotten about emerges from the ashes and claims the throne to make peace between the nations."

"It'll take quite the display. Are you sure we can manage it before Sozin's Comet?"

He calculated the approximate number of days they had before the comet, then frowned. "Maybe. That Day of Black Sun thing you were talking about . . . I've been thinking about that. We won't be able to face the Fire Lord that day; he'll be in hiding. But if we modified the invasion plan, garnered enough support from the other nations, I bet we could slip into the Fire Nation Capital. Not into the palace, of course, or even into the higher class neighborhoods, but I bet we could find a place to camp out in the Harbor District." _It's always been a seedy place. The Black Market was thriving there before I was banished. Yes, even a banished prince wouldn't be too out of place there. _

"You'll want to talk to Sokka about the invasion plan. It was his idea."

He nodded, then sat down at her bedside again. "We're going to need everyone. Do you think your healing powers might be able to speed up the recovery of your leg?"

She frowned. "I've never tried my bending on broken bones before. I don't know."

"I'll bring some water. If anything, we'll be able to heal the cuts." _Though, at the rate bone heals, she won't be ready to fight by the time the comet comes around. _He hurried off to the stretch of land behind the house, not even waiting for a response. There was a well out back, with a stack of buckets for carrying water to patients. Zuko filled one until water sloshed over the edge, then carried the swaying bucket back to the house.

Katara seemed a bit more attentive as he walked in; she'd had a chance to wake up, and awareness made her that much sharper. "You don't have to go to so much trouble. I could've made it there myself."

"Not on that leg, you couldn't." He set the bucket at her bedside and stepped aside, waiting to see what she would do.

For a long moment, she simply stared at the water, still shifting slightly from its brief journey. "Why did you come looking for me?"

"I told you, we were worried."

"No. Just you. Why were _you _worried about _me_?"

For whatever reason, his face started to heat up. "Because . . . I like you, Katara. It would've bugged me, if I hadn't gone, and found out later that something bad had happened . . . I guess."

"Bug you?"

He shrugged.

"Zuko, I'm a master waterbender. What cause could you possibly have to believe I would need help?"

He made a weak gesture to her ankle.

"Other than that."

"Well . . . Nothing. There is no reason you were likely to hurt yourself. But I wanted to be sure."

She said nothing more, whether she was satisfied with his response or not. Her hand moved in a slow circle, drawing a stream of water out of the bucket. He had seen her use this move a dozen times, almost always to use as a whip, or to fling at her enemies. More than once, the rush of water had been directed at him.

_It seems like such a long time, _he thought, watching the sunset play off the moving water. _More has happened in the past month than the rest of the time I was banished. I never thought things would turn out like this. _

Katara coated her arms in water, not bothering to remove the bandages. As the liquid settled over her skin, a silver glow enveloped her arm wherever her wounds touched the water. It was so bright that Zuko blinked reflexively.

The water traveled down the rest of her body, healing cuts on her face, then moving to her chest, though he couldn't see any wounds through the powder blue gown she'd been given. She _had _been wearing her Fire Nation dress when she'd run off, though, and the garment had left her midriff unprotected. Perhaps the rough bark of the trees had grazed her belly, or her otherwise smooth skin had been marred by the wooden claws attached to the end of every branch.

"You're staring," she said.

If his face had turned pink before, now it bloomed with crimson luminescence. He looked away. "Sorry. I can leave."

Katara rolled her eyes, emphasizing the motion to make sure he saw. "Just kidding. We've been traveling together for weeks now. You've had plenty of chances to sneak a peek, if you'd really wanted to."

Was there a shade of red more vibrant that crimson? He didn't know if his face could get any redder. Somehow, Katara's sarcasm bit harder than scorn or disgust. Of course, he had come to know scorn and disgust very well, able to distinguish the subtle differences between them. Disgust was when someone was afraid to look you in the eye. Scorn was when someone refused to meet your eyes because they considered themselves the superior person.

He stood up. "I'll go."

The water traveled down to her broken ankle, slipping under the hard material of her cast. The sound of her teeth snapping together was loud enough to make him turn.

"I'm okay," she squeaked, more a reflex than a reflection of her condition. Her teeth ground together, as tight as her eyelids, clenched shut in a flash of pain. After a moment, her features relaxed.

Zuko gasped in a sharp gasp as he realized he hadn't taken a breath since she'd flinched. "Maybe I should get the healer."

"No, I'm fine, really. I can feel it mending."

"I don't think・"

She winced again as the water glowed against her leg. Just watching her reaction, a silent horror show of gritted teeth and rigid muscles, made him think of the sound of her bones cracking. His stomach turned, and he ran outside, a sting running up his throat. He barely made it outside before his breakfast was forcibly removed from his stomach.

He knelt in the bushes for several minutes, grimacing at the taste in his mouth. His hands trembled, even pressed into the soil. _Ew . . . _

Without any sound coming out of the house, he was able to push the imagined crackle of bones out of his mind. Knees shaking, he supported his body against the wood frame of the house.

Several seconds passed, and he honestly considered giving up the whole venture and staying out here until she was through. But with Sokka and the rest of the warriors hunting, and Toph busy practicing in some secluded section of the mountain, there was no one else to support Katara as she endured the painful healing processes of mending a bone. He went back inside.

"Did you just throw up?"

He shrugged.

"Zuko, you don't have to stay here." The way she said his name sent odd shivers down his spine. While he was sorting out the strange reaction, her voice took on a sad note. "Aang would've normally been here to distract me. I feel like he's the one who's supposed to be helping me through this, even though his absence is what made me run off in the first place. With you here . . ."

"You don't like having me near you now?"

"It's not that. It surprises me . . . I'm actually really glad you're with me."

The words were like a life raft in a choppy sea; Zuko clung to her admission, hoping her next words would pull him away from the churning currents dragging him under.

"Back at the South Pole, when I first met Aang, I dreamed of being a master waterbender. I wanted to go up to the North Pole, to learn whatever I could, but I never got the chance until Aang came along. It gave me the excuse I needed to see the world. If I hadn't found Aang, if I hadn't lost my temper and broken him out of that iceberg, I never would have gotten this far . . . Looking back, there are so many little things that could've kept me from learning waterbending. It seems like a miracle that I got this far.

"It seems like a miracle that you're not my enemy anymore. I'd really like to hear the story behind that."

"The story of why I sided with you at Ba Sing Se?" he asked.

"Yeah."

His eyes strayed to the twisting patterns on the ceiling, while his mind drifted back to a different time. It took him a while to organize his thoughts. "I guess it all started when Azula tried to take me as a captive of the Fire Nation," he began.

As he told the story, his factual accounts shifted to more emotional appeals. He found himself conveying his thoughts from those times, dark and otherwise. Katara would interrupt every so often, surprised by tidbits of his journey.

"You had a girlfriend?"

"Only for one night. My uncle set it up, hoping it would help me transition into a better life. We were fugitives at that point, so we had to masquerade as regular citizens from the Earth Kingdom. Her name was Jin." He told her about that night, how he'd lit the lanterns for her, and how she'd wondered how they'd been lit. "Maybe she thought I'd set it up beforehand, so a bunch of people could sweep in and light them while she wasn't looking."

"That was sweet of you," Katara said.

He shrugged. "There was no one else there. I didn't see any harm in surprising her. After all, she was nice to me." He went on, telling her about what had happened between that and their run in at the catacombs. "And you pretty much know the rest."

Katara was silent for a moment. "You really are a good guy, aren't you . . . It makes me feel guilty for hating you for so long."

_Well, that was blunt. _"I'm glad you don't hate me anymore."

A thin smile curved up her lips. "Yeah. I'm glad, too."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

The boulder came crashing down with an explosive thud. Toph sighed and let her legs drop out from under her. The rock below cracked when she sat down. "I spent too much time recovering. I'm out of practice."

"It'll come back to you," Iroh said. "A dog will always return to its master if they are a loving owner."

Her fingers traced the cracks in the ground, and she felt the area around her unfold under her seismic senses. Her feet were the most sensitive, able to pick up things from farther away, but pressing her hands to the rock sharpened her view of the world. With them, she could feel the house, sitting at the mountain peak. Two figures were moving inside now, one of them the lithe firebender who'd joined their group since she'd been asleep, and the other, lying down on the cot, belonging to Katara. "Katara's awake."

"You can tell from all the way out here?"

"Yeah." She'd told Iroh about how she used her affinity for earth to sense where everything was in relation to her, but it seemed she hadn't been clear on how far her range of detection spread. "We should head back. She's probably wondering where we are." She started toward the little hut, while Iroh's sandals crunched on the gravel behind her. _I need a break anyway, after today. _She shook her head, not quite willing to believe that, even after a debilitating injury, her earthbending was out of whack. _It was bad enough to lose my bending in the Spirit World. I can't afford to lose it here, too. _

"You seem troubled," Iroh noted as they walked.

"What makes you think so?"

"You're leaving cracks in the ground wherever you walk."

"Oh." _Hmm. He's right. _"I guess my body is still recovering. Katara was probably going to look at it, but then she ran off, so . . ." She shrugged.

"I have seen your earthbending in battle before. You aren't usually so tense."

"I've got a lot on my mind."

Iroh waited, not pushing her to explain as the rest of her friends might have. After a moment, she spoke again. "I had a dream, after that knife wound. At least, it seemed like a dream at first. I couldn't use my earthbending at all, so my feet couldn't see anything around me."

Iroh nodded, still not pushing for information. The amicable silence stretched on a few more seconds as she tried to rearrange her thoughts.

"It was so clear for a dream, though. I remember everything about it. I was in a swamp, without my bending. As I wandered, I heard voices singing in different languages: languages that don't even exist anymore, I think, but I could sort of pick up on their tone. After a while, they started to sound dark, like they wanted me out of there. I panicked and started calling for help, afraid I was just getting farther and farther from where I could get out.

"And then, I heard Aang's voice. He said he was going to help me get out of there, so I followed him. Except, it wasn't him, it was a monster using his voice. The way it moved, it sounded like a bug crawling over the trees, except _huge_." She threw her arms up in an expansive gesture. "It dragged me under the water and tried to drown me. And that was when I woke up."

She felt Iroh nod beside her. "I think you may have crossed over into the Spirit World. If it had been a dream, you would not be able to remember it so clearly."

"I thought it might've been. I don't know anything about the Spirit World, though."

"Few people ever see the Spirit World. It is not a place for the living."

She nodded emphatically.

They were near the hut now. This close, Toph could make out every detail of what was inside. Zuko sat at Katara's bedside, his hand resting in hers. The contact seemed out of place to her. A lot had happened in the time she'd been unconscious, but she hadn't thought it was enough for all the relationships of their team to slide around so much. Ty Lee's arrival had been a shock in and of itself, and since the acrobat had free reign of the area, apparently everyone had learned to trust her in the short time she'd been unconscious. Zuko had been welcomed with minimal fanfare. It seemed like half the major alliances had shifted around in the few days she'd been asleep.

Unsure if Katara wanted to be seen holding the exiled prince's hand, Toph turned the door handle as slowly as she could. Before she walked into the room, she felt the waterbender withdraw her hand and look up at the door.

"Nice to know you're awake," Toph said, approaching Katara's bedside. Zuko slid his chair away and stood up without a word. She plopped down on his chair. "Ready to fight the Fire Nation?"

Katara sat up. "How many days until the eclipse?"

"We've got a couple weeks; don't freak out. I'm sure you'll be on your feet by then, with your healing powers."

She felt the waterbender frown.

"You _can _heal bone, can't you?"

"Of course I can. It just takes longer, that's all."

Toph liked to think that, after twelve years of analyzing people's voices and picking up the different shades of emotion dripping from every word, she'd become very good at understanding tone. In Katara's response, a defensive note mingled with a worried pitch to create an odd chord of unease. Her seismic sense picked up on the rigid muscles of Katara's back, tightened with stress, perhaps pain.

Katara's unease made her bite her lip in worry.

Ty Lee

The blue butterfly had perched itself on the scarlet petals of a fire lily. Ty Lee watched its sculpted wings fold and unfold, the light dancing off the cobalt blue color, like sunshine hitting stained glass.

The little bug took off, flitting through the air in its unique dance. Ty Lee followed the delicate creature, keeping quiet so as not to startle the winged bug any more than necessary.

_This was the right thing to do, _she thought, feeling better than she had in weeks. Being cheerful had been a chore around Mai and Azula. Mai simply didn't inspire any sprightly behavior, and Azula was . . . scary. But here, up in the mountains, with no industrial towers in sight, and a sea of scarlet lilies fit for frolicking, being cheerful suddenly became a lot easier.

She was losing track of her butterfly; she had to run to catch up to it. As the butterfly disappeared over a raised ledge, she crested the hill.

The earth dropped off in a matter of feet, a sheer cliff on the mountainside. Ty Lee reeled back, her heart rate doubling as she saw how high up she was. Even tightrope walking hadn't banished her instinctive fear of heights. Beyond the sheer cliff, the cobalt blue ocean stretched out, shimmering just as the butterfly's wings had done. As she realized this, a flicker of motion drew her attention, and her eyes grazed across the butterfly.

_She has no fear of heights, _Ty Lee thought, only just now deciding to refer to the butterfly as a female. _She's free to fly between every island, every nation. No one would ever reject her, if they crossed her path. Not like me. _Abruptly, her good cheer vanished. She sat down on the edge of the cliff, her feet dangling over the side. _If only every person was as free as a butterfly. There would be no war, no struggle. We could fly anywhere we wanted, even if we had to cross the whole world to get there. _

"What are you doing out here?"

Her head whipped around, and some part of her brain waited for the resulting snap of her ponytail. The sound never came, but in spite of the lack of hair, her mood brightened. "Sokka, you're back." She leapt to her feet, landing silently on her toes. Sokka recoiled an inch, startled by her sudden movement. Slung over his shoulder, on a pair of metal hooks used for carrying various objects, hung two feathered creatures he'd brought down during his hunt. Their necks dangled at grotesque angles, twisted and snapped all at once; she looked away. "So it looks like the hunt went okay."

"Yeah. We'll be able to eat well tonight, I think."

"Are you on your way back now?"

He nodded. "You should probably come with. It's getting dark."

Her lips widened into a smile at the invitation, and she hopped over to his side. The muscles in his neck stiffened.

The other warriors were slipping out of the forest now, casting wary glances in her direction. Perhaps they thought it was foolish of their young companion to bring an old enemy into the group. Perhaps they found her unworthy of their trust, and too overwhelmingly Fire Nation. Whatever it was, the uneasy glances they favored her with irked her. In retaliation, she took Sokka's hand.

He glanced down, his face going red. As soon as he saw her hand, he pulled away. "Look, I um . . . I've kind of had a rough go at the whole . . . relationship thing. I've lost every girl I was ever involved with. I'm not sure I'm ready for another girlfriend, just yet."

The rejection stung, no matter how sound his reasoning was. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Do you even really trust me?"

"I trust you as much as I can afford to."

"That's not much of an answer."

He sighed. "All right, fine. I trust you more than I would trust a complete stranger, and I appreciate you coming out here to help us, but the fact is, you used to be an enemy, and I worry what the warriors will think of me if I put too much faith in you."

"You don't trust me because of public opinion. Is that what you're saying?"

"Hey, it's the truth. And honestly, I trust Zuko even less. But we need the numbers, and the only way we're going to win is if we have everyone we can possibly get on our side."

"It's all numbers to you, isn't it? You think that if you add one or two more to your ranks that you'll actually be able to break into the Fire Nation. But you're wrong. It doesn't matter how many troops you have, or how many individual soldiers. It matters how many of them are willing to follow you to their deaths to accomplish the goal you set for them."

"I understand that, but if we only have two dozen with us, we're not going to be able to get into the Fire Nation at all. We need Ba Sing Se behind us. We need the Earth Kingdom, and the water tribes. We need the Foggy Swamp, and the Freedom Fighters, and everyone else, otherwise there's no way we're getting in."

"You don't need to break into the Capital City, Sokka. There are boats that ferry tourist there every day."

He turned, stopping mid-stride. "What?"

"There are ferries to the city. It won't be hard to get in, if you're only bringing a few people. Then, the eclipse comes, we take out the Fire Lord, and Azula."

He stared at her for a very long moment, eyes wide with some emotion she couldn't identify. Then, without even giving her time to react, his hands came down on her shoulders and gave her body one quick jerk. "Ty Lee, you're a genius!"

"Thanks?" she said uncertainly. "What for?"

"You just gave me a great idea. Man, we've gotta get back. I have to write this down."

"Write what down?"

A wide smile dawned across his features. "I know how we're getting into the palace."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

He wasn't quite sure how he'd ended up in a tent with Ty Lee, while she gave him a massage.

Her delicate hands pressed down hard on the knots in his lower back, moving with a strength and firmness that belied her slight figure. In the back of his mind, Sokka had known that her body had to be strong to perform such impressive leaps, but he hadn't really applied that principle to anything besides her acrobatics.

Her thumb caressed the rigid line on one side of his back. "You're tense here, and here," she murmured, fingertips digging into his muscles. Sokka made a sound at the back of his throat, somewhere between a cry and a moan. "Does that hurt?"

In a way, it did hurt. The dots of pressure where she dug her fingers into his flesh ached fiercely, but it was similar to the sensation that came after a vigorous workout: sore and fatigued, but more invigorating than a solid night of sleep. "No, keep going."

Her palms ran up and down the rigid cords, ironing out the tension. As she moved her hands up and down his back, her rounded fingernails trailed across his bare skin. Ty Lee had nice fingernails. They weren't filed to sharp points like Azula's, but they weren't bitten down to stubs like many of the girls he'd met in his travels. The soft semicircles brushed against his skin, angled so they wouldn't cut into his flesh, but so that he could feel them as they left warm trails across his body.

The muscles in his back had relaxed considerably in the half hour she'd been working at them. At first, he was sure, the massage had been nothing more than a friendly gesture, meant to earn his trust. Ty Lee had casually suggested it when he'd complained about the sore spot in his lower back he'd earned from hunting. Trying to prove that he did, in fact, trust her enough to be alone with her, he'd allowed her to strip off his shirt and run her hands down his back to rub out some of the pain.

Half an hour later, her movements had gone from firm strokes to soft caresses. Sokka realized the pain he'd felt ever since this morning had vanished.

"You've been really stressed lately, haven't you?" Ty Lee asked before he could send her away.

"I guess. I mean, what happened to Aang was bad enough, but then Toph got hurt, and you showed up out of nowhere. When I finally found Katara, she ran off and almost got herself killed. Zuko told me the original invasion plan wouldn't work. It started to seem like the only constant in my life was the stress."

"Too much stress can throw off your body's rhythms. Have you had trouble eating, lately?"

_Iroh noticed that, too, _he thought, remembering his lack of appetite when Toph had been bleeding all over the stone table inside. He glanced up at the acrobat. "A little, I guess."

The girl nodded, as if she'd been expecting that. Part of his mind waited for her braid to bounce before he remembered that she'd cut off all her hair. An inch of light brown hair clung to her scalp, sticking out in all directions in disarray. The haphazard styling didn't mar her natural beauty, though. Even when they'd been enemies, Sokka had noticed the way her fiery expression drew attention, how her figure, however slight, retained the shape of a woman. Back then, the girl had been unattainable, and thus, undesirable to him.

But now . . . Did she realize how intertwined their bodies were, when she was sitting on his back, leaning over him as she worked?

"You don't need to be so stressed, Sokka," she murmured, resting her chin on his shoulder. "Everything will be fine. Your plan is pure gold."

_Plan? Oh, yeah, the plan. _On his way back from his hunting trip, he'd discussed his budding ideas with Ty Lee. Taking from her unintended suggestion, he'd thought of stowing away on a cargo ship destined for the Capital, under the guise of Fire Nation soldiers. That would get them into port, and from there, they could hide away in the city until an opportunity arrived for them to fight the Fire Lord. He hadn't brought the idea up to the others yet, but he knew it was a good one.

Ty Lee ran one long finger through his hair, untying the warrior's wolf tail with a twist of her fingers. "Hey!"

"Don't stress, I said." She set the blue ribbon on the floor of the tent. Her hands traced the line of his neck, fingers weaving through his now loose hair. Sokka repressed a shiver as her fingers massaged his scalp. "You have people on your side, people who will support you so you don't have to stand alone against everything the world throws at you. Your sister, Toph, the warriors . . . and me." The last was said in a more reserved voice, as if she was afraid to suggest such a thing. She continued, quieter than before. "You know, I liked you from the very first time I saw you. Not just because you were cute, either. You fought even when your body should've given out, even when you faced odds that other men would run from. And you were smart, too. I thought someone like you would only be interested in fighting, but no, you're here making plans that could actually get us into the Fire Nation."

She manipulated his body so he was facing up at her while she perched herself on his bare stomach. "People think I'm stupid because I dress in pink and I act boy crazy. And because they always _treated _me like I was a few leaves short of a rosebush, I started to believe them. I let Azula run my life, and I went to join the circus instead of growing up. But that was wrong. I wasted my time on things that didn't even matter, instead of doing what I should've done in the first place: ending the war.

"I won't let anyone treat me like I don't matter anymore. I have a part to play in this war, and it's going to change everything."

"What are you thinking?" he asked, hoping a distraction would stave off her advances.

Ty Lee rolled back, leaning against his knee. "Oh, that's easy. I'm going to take down Azula."

Katara

After a dozen healing sessions and three days of rest, Katara found herself able to walk again.

The first step had been a relief. Bone was such a stubborn substance—being solid, it didn't want to respond to her waterbending like the rest of her flesh did. But that first tentative stroll across the healer's hut made her heart flutter like a bird in flight. Smiles bloomed on every face around her, even Zuko's.

"So, it looks like it worked," he remarked as she circled around the stone operating table.

"Yeah. It's still stiff, but I should be back to normal in another day or two." _And then we can get out of here and back to work on Sokka's plan._ Her brother had said something about stowing away on a ship, on the way to the Capital. His thoughts had been vague when he'd come back with food from the hunt, but he'd assured everyone that once he'd worked out the plan in his mind, he would explain it in depth. Katara just hoped Zuko wouldn't find so many holes in this one.

Once the celebration of her first steps died down, people started ducking out the door. Toph said she was going out to work on her earthbending. The warriors weren't there at all, busy hunting out in the woods again to support their swelling group. Iroh went with Toph, making sure she didn't get kidnapped while she was practicing. Sokka and Ty Lee went off to strategize(though Katara couldn't think of any reason why _Ty Lee _was necessary to the creation of Sokka's plan).

Zuko was the only one who stayed behind.

"Don't you need to practice your firebending? Or your lightning generation?"

He shrugged. "It would draw too much attention. A lot of people get curious when they see plumes of flame shooting up from the mountain, even people native to the Fire Nation. Lightning, even more so. Besides, I don't even know if I _could _produce lightning without Azula staring me down."

She opened her mouth to argue—the only way to keep in shape here was to practice for combat— but he changed the subject before she could.

"Anyway, I'd rather be here, with you."

"I'm not going to be any fun, lying around in bed all day."

A flush crept over his face, and he glanced away. _What was that about? _she wondered. "I practiced while everyone slept, anyway."

"Oh." She laid back, burying her head in her pillow. Zuko sat down beside her, in the chair he'd dragged over to her bedside.

"I don't have many allies left," he said. "You're the only one here who isn't afraid to talk to me."

"That's not true. Sokka would talk to you, if you approached him. And Toph never actually fought against you, so . . ." She shrugged.

"Maybe. But they'll never trust me."

"They might. I trust you, and that's pretty out there, considering what the Fire Nation has put me through." Another silence came to pass, this one longer. Zuko took her hand, as he had developed a habit of since she'd broken her ankle. Normally, though, he only dared to take her hand when she was asleep, or in pain. This time, the gesture seemed to be for his own comfort.

_He looks lonely, _she thought, examining him critically. His gaze tunneled through the thin, wooden walls, as if he was looking beyond them. There was something piercingly sad about his expression in that moment, something that reminded her of a wounded polar bear dog, enduring its pain in silence. She lifted the hand he held, moving slowly so as not to startle him. His golden eyes flashed over to her, widening to turn his expression vulnerable. His lips parted slightly, but no words came out.

Katara pressed her fingertips to the rough skin of his scar, a thrill passing through her heart as it had done when she'd touched his face at the catacombs. Back then, her hands-on examination of his scar had been purely clinical, a fascinating experience to learn something else about the human body. She didn't have any major scars of her own, so feeling the rough texture of his burnt skin had been a novel experience for her.

This touch wasn't like that touch.

Feeling his skin warm under her fingertips, and seeing the flush creep across his features again . . . The sensation stirred something inside her, much like the feeling of walking out of her igloo in the winter and breathing in that first frigid gasp of air: a bit painful, but more exhilarating than anything. Her heart hammered against her ribs, trying to pump blood through arteries that suddenly felt sealed shut. A wave of dizziness hit her, skewing her thought process. She blinked, trying to refocus.

His hand, just as warm as the rest of his body, shifted around hers, holding her palm to the scarred side of his face instead of pushing her away.

"I trust you," she whispered, an echo of their abandoned conversation. Her body tilted forward without a command from her mind. Only inches away now, Zuko closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

_I'm sorry, Aang, _she thought, as their lips met.

Author's Note

_Finally. I finally reached the tipping point of their relationship. Special thanks to everyone who stuck with me this long. If you liked this story, you should know I just posted the first chapter of a new story, called _Frigid Feelings, _so I will be tinkering with that over the next couple weeks . . . months. I will continue work on this project, as well, so keep checking in for updates. See you next chapter!_


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

The kiss sent a jolt of electricity through his heart, and for one moment, Zuko feared he'd been hit by lightning. That seemed more likely than the feeling of Katara's soft lips against his, or the way her hair smelled like summer wind, or the way her arms, firm from so much bending, coiled around his neck in the moments after they made contact.

He weaved his hands through her hair, holding her head there. Her body leaned in deeper in response, her mouth shifting against his. Her lips parted slightly, to breathe, then she kissed him again, her arms tightening around his neck.

Some distant part of his mind demanded to know what the hell he was doing. _You have to think about this. She's vulnerable and lonely, and you're the only boy her age here who she's not related to. Of course she'd turn to you. It doesn't mean she actually likes you like this._

Zuko pushed the thoughts out of his mind and sunk deeper into the kiss. Katara met his enthusiasm eagerly, bringing herself closer so her breasts slid against the fabric of his shirt. He shivered.

_Sokka will kill you if he finds out about this, _his brain reminded him. This thought, and the accompanying image, gave him pause. Katara noticed his sudden reluctance, and opened her mouth to speak. "Stay with me," she whispered.

"Your brother would kill me." Hating himself, he unwound his fingers from her hair and leaned away.

The look of stark disappointment in her face was enough to split his heart in two.

The sat like that for a moment, each second getting more awkward. Unable to take the silence, Zuko stood up and started for the door. Katara didn't stop him as he shoved the rickety barrier out of his way.

The air was hot, even for a tropical island. Humidity turned the air into a choking hazard, and climbing up the mountainside made his body break out in sweat. As he wandered, Sokka passed by, boomerang in hand.

"Where you going?" the water tribe boy asked, noticing his panicked expression. The boy's curiosity made Zuko paranoid, and he lied without thinking.

"I have to practice my firebending. It's been a while."

A wide smile dawned on his face. "Oh, cool. We could spar, or something. I haven't practiced much with my boomerang lately, either."

"I'm going alone." His voice was flat, empty. Surprise flashed across Sokka's face.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look kind of . . . well, more angry than usual."

_Play the nice guy, _he told himself. _You don't need to be more of an outcast than you already are._ "I'm fine. Just a little out of practice."

The water tribe boy looked at him a moment more, then glanced away. "Okay . . . Later, then."

_That was easy, _Zuko thought, turning back up the hill. He broke into a run, trying to push away the thoughts of Katara's lips pressing against his, or the warm smell of her hair, or how much he wanted to run back to the healer's hut and kiss her again. _That's just stupid. She's still mourning over her dead best friend. You can't just take advantage of her like that. What the matter with you? _

He crested the hill at that moment, and had to look away from the sun as it stabbed at his eyes. He staggered forward, blinded by the glare, then tripped over a rock on the path. His body tumbled forward, face smashing into the dirt as he hit the ground.

Zuko laid there a moment, too weary to stand. _Why? Why would she kiss me? She used to hate me, so why the sudden shift? It doesn't make sense, unless it's just a reaction to losing the Avatar. That must be it. She's torn up about him, and she needs someone close to her. That's all, so stop thinking otherwise. _He rose to his knees and brushed the dirt off his face.

Several minutes passed before he made himself stand up. His legs carried him further down the path, going in a straight line even when the path branched off toward the miniscule village at the bottom of the hill. He kept walking, passing rows of trees, over a grassy field overflowing with fire lilies until the ground angled upward in a steep hill, ending in a sheer cliff. Zuko ran to the edge, then stopped short, looking over the gray stones of the cliff.

A rugged beach stretched out below him, covered in shards of obsidian and rocks dyed gray by distance. Waves smashed into a boulder buried among the pebbles, splitting when they struck the sharp angle of the rock's face. The gray stretch of beach stood in stark contrast to the blooming flowers he'd just run through, revealing the bleak ruins beneath the beauty. For a moment, the world felt so vast and unfathomable that all he could do was stare down at the rocks below, waiting for some great revelation that would set aside his confusion about Katara.

Nothing changed.

Annoyed with his moment of sentimentality, he shot to his feet and stalked back into the scarlet sea. He exhaled a puff of fire, scorching the lilies in his path.

Back when his only goal in life had been hunting the Avatar, he had often lost his temper, becoming infuriated by the most inconsequential things. He'd thought that part of him had been buried, giving way to the more practical persona he'd adopted in its absence. That anger must've still been bubbling away under the surface, though, because it boiled over now, shattering his self-control like a rock hurled through a window.

Fire exploded from his fists, spewing out in a red stream and rising up into the air. Heat mirages shimmered beside the flames, warping the air around the blast. The release of energy felt so good that he sent up another plume, this one even larger than the last.

His leg whipped around in a familiar pattern, sending an arc of fire across the field. Any woodland creatures in the vicinity fled, judging by the cloud of butterflies that rose up from the burning blossoms.

Another fireball, from his fists again. It rose high into the sky, lifting up like a roaring dragon. Zuko let another fireball go through his teeth, turning toward the barren cliff. Energy rushed up from somewhere deep inside, following the rigid line of his arm as it rushed toward his fingertips. It flashed through his body, sending painful jolts down his arms and legs. Zuko recognized the sensation as the same one that had overflowed from his body when he'd fought Azula at the catacombs: lightning.

The electricity crackled on his fingertips, yearning to be released. Zuko shifted stances, extending his middle and index finger outward to direct the electricity. The energy shot out of his arm like a cannon.

And exploded at his fingertips, with a shockwave that threw him back a dozen feet. He landed on the charred soil where there had once been grass and flowers and life. A too-familiar pain crawled up his arms, and he looked down to see the bright red burns against his pale skin.

_Fuck, _he thought, tilting his head back to look at the sky. The sun hovered above him, baking the scorched earth. He closed his eyes. _I can't even produce lightning in direct sunlight. I knew it. Those other times were just a fluke._

_Just like that stupid kiss. Just a fucking fluke. _


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Katara couldn't recall ever being rejected. Quite the opposite, people were usually looking for her approval. Even Jet, though he'd turned out to be a monster with an agenda, had wanted her, in more ways than one. Aang, even with all his responsibilities, had struggled to earn her attention, and she had not missed his attempts. The only reason she'd held back because Aang was too young to have more than a boyish crush on her, and had duties to attend to that left him little time to worry about romance.

It felt strange, being on the other side of rejection. Almost like she'd been cheated out of a golden opportunity.

Her only company in the little room were the birds that would fly by the window and flit around the windowsill every so often. With Zuko gone, she had no one to keep her from being lonely. She hadn't thought she'd miss his presence so much, since he seldom spoke more than a handful of words at a time, but without his intermittent conversation, the room had turned desolate. Silence pressed on her eardrums like the weight of water over her head.

A pair of crutches, fit to her height, leaned against the wall, a foot away from her bed. She hadn't used them much, except for bathroom breaks and to spend a few minutes fixing her hair in the mirror. When the silence became overpowering, though, she decided it was time to see how the rickety-looking supports would fare in a longer journey.

She grabbed the crutches, easing her legs over the edge of the bed. The weight of her cast fell heavy on her legs, and dragging it behind her as she limped made for slow progress. It took almost a minute to get to the door.

Fresh air greeted her, as invigorating as her healing abilities on a cut. One more day of healing would be enough to get her out of this cast. Healer Zolena hadn't been convinced of her quick recovery, and had commanded her to keep the heavy block on her foot, but in the space of a few short days, the constant itching and annoying potential of the cast had worn her patience down to nothing.

"Hey, you're up and moving," Sokka said, as she walked out the door. Katara flinched when she saw Ty Lee sitting beside him, perched over his maps like she had some key role in his plans. To Katara, the attention seemed more like an attempt at espionage than any other cause. "How's the leg?"

"It's fine," she said, a bit irritably. Sokka didn't seem to notice; he'd had years to get used to her annoyed voice, and he'd become a master at ignoring it. Ty Lee, on the other hand, looked up at her antagonism, her eyebrows slanting back with a look of vulnerability. Hurt. Like a little polar bear puppy.

Katara hobbled past her brother and the circus freak, wishing the crutches didn't make her look so pathetic. Her first journey away from the house in days, she wanted to at least go far enough down the path that she didn't have to see the peeling paint or broken shingles. Or Ty Lee. Especially Ty Lee.

Sunlight filtered down through the leaves in patches, falling across her face every few steps. The limited shade was a nice relief from the sun, though. In the South Pole, many of her days had been spent in almost total darkness, except for the stars. Cloud cover made sunlight a luxury, but when the weak rays did shine off the ice, the glare seemed to illuminate the whole South Pole. Until she'd left the frigid continent, she'd never experienced the gentle side of sunlight.

_The sun will always rise, _she thought, taking a deep breath as she came to a standstill on the path. _No matter how long the night last, the sun must always rise again to wake the earth. It has always been so._

_Even if this war ends and the Fire Nation wins . . . Even if Aang is dead, with the rest of the air nomads . . . Even if it seems like all hope is lost . . . There will always be another sunrise. _

_There has to be a new sunrise for me, too. It's time to wake up and meet the day. _

"Katara?"

She turned toward Ty Lee, trying to stifle her annoyance. A new day ought to start with brighter feelings than this. "Yes?"

"I just . . . You seemed upset when you saw me, before . . ." Hesitation flickered across her features.

Katara waited for her to finish, impatient.

"I know we've had our differences. Sokka told me you don't really buy the whole 'I've changed' routine, ever since that guy named Jet."

_Great. Another name I didn't want to come up today. _She instantly felt guilty for the thought. Jet was dead, now, after all, and in hindsight, she could've used the water from the Spirit Oasis to heal him, instead of waiting for her captors to steal it.

"But I want you to know," Ty Lee went on, pulling her out of her guilty thoughts. "I'm not going to betray you guys. I'm not waiting for an opportunity to stab you in the back. So whatever's making you distrust me, I want to hear it."

She opened her mouth, ready to let the torrent go, then forced herself to stay silent.

Ty Lee waited, staring so intently that her pupils began to shake.

Katara deflated. "There is no reason," she said woodenly. "If I'd been on Azula's side, I would've been too afraid to betray her. That's all."

Something flashed across the acrobat's face, as if she'd been slapped. At her side, her hands clenched into fists. The muscles in her back stretched taut as the tightropes she walked. "So that's it. You don't believe I've really changed sides."

"You're right. I don't."

"Do you know why I left Azula to come here? Why I abandoned everything I had, all the prestige, all the recognition, all my friends and family?" She threw her arms up in a gesture of aggravation, then turned away, in an apparent effort to calm herself. Katara watched, ready to use her crutch as a club if necessary.

"Why?" she asked, getting a better grip on the piece of wood.

Ty Lee's answer was a bare whisper. "Because Azula cut my hair."

The wind rushed through the leaves above, making them rustle against each other.

"All this . . . over a haircut?"

The girl's shoulders slumped, an odd position for the graceful performer. "Yes. Because she cut my hair. If she had just left it burnt, if she had given me the option to cut it off myself . . . I would have. Since it was ruined, anyway, I would've cut it off. But she didn't even _ask _me. She just assumed it was okay. She decided what to do with me without even thinking about what I'd want.

"And then, trying to make me feel better, she gave me your brother's boomerang, recovered from the Crystal Catacombs. Azula said she'd tried giving it to Mai first, but she hadn't wanted it, and . . ." Her breathing hitched, wavering in that way it did before the tears came. "I knew she meant it as a friendly gesture . . . I knew that, of course I did . . . But it was like she put no thought into it at all. I mean, how much is it to ask for some new pink clothes to replace the burned ones, or . . ." A sob nearly took her then, but she recovered. "Or I don't know, maybe a _wig_, or a nice hat to cover up the bald spots, or _something_. Why couldn't she have at least put that much thought into it? We were friends, she should've . . . she should've . . ." This time, when her words disappeared in a sob, she couldn't hold the tears back. Ty Lee half-turned, saltwater pouring down the sides of her face. She lifted one delicate hand to her cheek, trying to hide the emotion, trying to hold back the crippling sorrow that stood in such sharp contrast to her cheerful demeanor.

"Ty Lee . . ."

"She should've _remembered_! She knows me better than that, so why didn't she even consider those things? Why did she have to give me a weapon I couldn't even use, a trophy for a battle I hardly fought in? What kind of friend _does _that?"

"Ty Lee . . . I never knew."

The girl's voice was quiet again, emotionless. "I'd known her since we were kids. I knew her favorite foods, and how she loved to get her hair combed at the royal spa, and how _exactly _she liked to have her nails done . . . All that time we spent together meant nothing to her. I was nothing but a tool. Do you know what it's like to be used?"

Katara couldn't think of an appropriate response, especially after her thoughts had been so extreme, so she just laid her hand on Ty Lee's shoulder in a gesture of comfort. The acrobat turned and hugged her, almost knocking the crutches out of the way. Katara felt a spot of liquid pool on her shoulder as Ty Lee dried her tears there.

For many minutes, the air around them echoed with the sound of sobbing.

_Authors Note._

_Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to leave you hanging so long without an update. I know you expect more out of me, but writer's block had been kicking my ass lately. The next update will hopefully come sooner, and be longer. Marching band is over for the season, so I should have more time to write. _

_In other news, if you haven't checked out my new story yet, I'm three chapters in, and it's shaping up to be pretty epic. I know some of you are wary of Original Characters, but I promise, there won't be any Mary-Sues in my stories. The writing itself is also a bit better, I think. More refined. I spent more time on revisions, making sure I was remaining consistent, and that every sentence had a purpose. _


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Can't even throw a few fireballs without getting burned," the healer muttered as she wrapped bandages around Zuko's arm. The salve had cooled the afflicted area, and the burns were minor, more like a sunburn than anything else. "You could do something constructive to blow off steam, you know. Like fixing the cracked siding, or putting down a new floor so I don't get splinters in my own house. There, you're done." She folded the bandages one final time, tucking the loose end under the edge of the wrappings.

"Thanks." Wishing he had long enough sleeves to cover up the bandages, he went outside and sat down, leaning against Appa's soft fur. The bison made a contented grumble, a sort of greeting sound, then closed his eyes in sleep.

No one else was around. Sokka had run off somewhere, probably hunting again. Ty Lee was probably off chasing butterflies. When he'd seen his uncle this morning, the old man had been digging in the herb garden for tea leaves, but it was quite possible he was examining Toph's earthbending techniques again. Uncle was always trying to learn new techniques. _I suppose I should be grateful for that. His techniques must have saved my life a dozen times by now._

Katara was nowhere to be found. Daylight streamed down from the sun, directly overhead. He doubted she'd go running off into the woods again while she was still recovering from the last time. At least, he hoped not. Seeing her lying bloody and still on the ground, thinking she was dead . . .

He shook his head to clear it. _It's not like she's suicidal or anything, _he reasoned. _And besides, I'd be able to find her even if she did run off. It's the middle of the day._

He closed his eyes. Pictures of her body lying limp on the forest floor, and the blood spattered across the leaves, flashed across his eyelids, a nightmarish sideshow. His fingers coiled, nails digging into his palm, and he forgot about the burns on his hands for a moment.

He sat there a while longer, trying to ignore the thoughts bouncing around in his head. After a while, the daydreams faded, replaced by that layer of consciousness between sleep and awareness. Snippets of action passed through his mind, forgotten the moment he surfaced enough to think of them. Fire dancing across a long stage, sunlight glaring through metal bars, a circle of gold reflecting a flash of blue . . . All slipping through his fingertips the second he tried to understand.

Only the last image remained. A face with a dark complexion, and deep brown eyebrows. A pair of eyes blazed brilliant blue, staring back at him, like lapis lazuli reflecting the sunlight. And then, as if it had only been a shape in a puff of smoke, the face was gone.

Sokka

His boomerang smashed into the bird's neck, making the bones snap like an arrow striking metal. The feathered piece of meat dropped out of the sky before the boomerang returned to him. Once he'd caught it, he tucked the sharp weapon into his belt strap, and went over to retrieve his prey.

The ocean water lapped up at his feet as he ran across the beach. The salty smell reminded him so much of the brine of the South Pole. It seemed strange that the waters of the Fire Nation would remind him so much of home, but he found himself thinking of the many fish he'd speared back in his village, and the taste of stewed sea prunes on his tongue. _Except this isn't my home, _he told himself. _And it never will be. _

He bent down to pick up the bird. His eyes scanned the horizon for ships, as he did every few minutes. A warrior could train under many masters, persevere through dozens of disciplines, but there was no point in such skill if you could not detect your enemy in time to strike.

There were a few ships on the horizon, close enough to the island to give him pause. Fire Nation ships patrolled these waters every day, though, both leaving and returning to port. Besides, he was wearing Fire Nation clothes, stolen from someone's clothesline; he had no reason to fear these few ships when they would likely not identify them.

He had almost decided to ignore the unconcealed threat until a bolt of lightning shot up from the deck of the largest ship, splitting the sky in two.

Sokka dropped the bird, fear shooting through his body like the electricity had shot through the sky. "Oh, shit," he whispered, his legs turning toward the mountaintop even as he contemplated the meaning of the bolt. "Oh _shit._" He sprinted up the stone steps, heart racing even faster as he drove his numb legs into the ground. The trip up the mountainside was harrowing enough at walking pace. Running uphill, even for a warrior in his prime, was almost as hard as climbing up the cliff on the other side of the island. Before he even reached the halfway point, his lungs were burning, and black spots danced in front of his eyes.

_Shit. Shit, shit, shit. _Another step, then another. He almost threw himself up the next step. _Why the hell would someone live this high in the mountains? How can that healer possibly expect her patients to make it up here? _Another step. His foot came down hard on the stone, and he tumbled forward, his elbows smashing into the ground with jarring force. Blood dripped down his forearms, slick and sticky all at once.

His fall must have been awfully loud, because Zuko came to the top of the steps, looking confused. "What happened?"

Sokka stood up, his legs almost collapsing under him, and dragged in a deep breath. "The ship . . . Azula's ship. In the bay."

Panic flickered across the firebender's face. "Shit."

_My sentiments exactly. _"Get Katara. I know where Ty Lee and the others are."

To his credit, Zuko didn't even hesitate. His body whipped around as if guided by an outside force, and he broke into a dead run into the woods, where Katara had gone only an hour ago.

Sokka hobbled up the final steps, trying to move faster even as his lungs struggled to drag oxygen into his body. More spots swarmed in front of his eyes as he reached the top of the steps. Once the ground leveled out, he made himself run again, clutching his side as his muscles started to cramp.

The water tribe warriors had congregated in tents behind the healer's hut. He went to them first. "Everyone," he began, relieved to hear how steady his voice was, in spite of his breathlessness. "We have to get out of here, now. Azula's ship is sailing for the island, and she's got more boats behind her. Appa won't be able to carry all of us, so you need to get down to the docks on the other side of the island and get out of here."

Surprise flashed across each of the warrior's faces, and for one awful second, Sokka thought they wouldn't listen to him. _They still see me as a little kid, _he thought, in the pressing silence. _They won't follow me. I'm not my father, they don't respect me._

And then they started moving. One man snatched his pack from the ground. Two more started tearing down tents with a fervor and efficiency that only existed in times of desperation. Another man donned his leather vest and an ivory helmet.

Sokka made a split second decision, trying to fight against his relief. There wasn't time. "Get as far away from here as possible. When you meet up with my dad, tell him I'll be waiting at Chameleon Bay until the Day of Black Sun. Tell him to garner as much support as possible for the invasion." _There goes the early infiltration plan, _he thought, mourning the abandoned idea. Ty Lee had worked with him all night to iron out all the details, and the plan they'd hatched had seemed golden. But it didn't matter now.

"I'm going to find the others. Chameleon Bay, don't forget." He turned toward the barren cliff where Toph liked to work on her earthbending with Iroh, feeling like he'd already lost too much time giving out orders. For all he knew, Azula's ship could be docking even as he ran.

_Toph will feel me coming, _he told himself. _She'll know something's wrong. _That would save him a few minutes at most, but in war, single seconds could mean the difference between life and death, victory and defeat. As soon as he met up with Toph and Iroh, he'd have to find Ty Lee, wherever she was, and regroup with Zuko and Katara. And after that, they had to make it back to Appa so they could fly out of here.

He couldn't shake the feeling that they were running out of time.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

The fire lilies had been scorched beyond recognition.

Katara sighed as she considered the cause. _I should've known Zuko would be pissed, _she thought. _What was I thinking, kissing him out of nowhere like that? _She shook her head and sighed. "I'm so stupid."

"Oh, I'd say so."

The voice scuttled up her spine like a centipede, and she snatched her crutches from the ground, trying to prop herself up so she could face her enemy.

Azula grinned. With her golden eyes and smug expression, her face appeared almost feline. Not a housecat, though. More like a tigerdillo.

Katara reached for the water in her pouch, not remembering until her hands came up empty that her new water skin had been destroyed on her ill-fated trek into the woods.

"Feeling at a loss without your element?" Azula taunted, a wisp of blue rising from her palm. "That's the nice thing about fire. You can take it anywhere. None of that elemental baggage that comes with the other elements."

"What do you want from me?" she demanded, raising her hands as if she knew how to defend herself without her bending. "Aang's dead. You said so yourself."

"True. But that's not what I want here. You see, I'm looking for my dear friend Ty Lee. She left in _such _a rush, she didn't even get a chance for a proper farewell."

"I don't know where she is. She ran off after we threatened to kill her."

"Don't you think I can't pick out a lie when I hear it? How stupid do you think I am?" She let the question, the unspoken threat, hang in the air a moment, trying to keep the smirk off her face. "Fine then. If you're so intent on protecting her, you can tell me where my brother's run off to instead."

"He left."

Azula made a noise of contempt in the back of her throat. "You are stupid, aren't you? Don't you realize how easy it would be for me to wring the answer out of you?"

"Go ahead and try." _Fall for the bluff. Come on . . ._

Azula's smirk widened. Katara only had a split second of warning before the Fire Nation princess sent a stream of blue fire in her direction. She dove, her body slamming into the ground. The flames nipped at the back of her gown, taunting her with its jagged teeth. She rolled over in an attempt to smother them.

"Funny thing about fire," Azula went on. "The burns keep hurting long after the damage is done. How long do you think it'll take for your friends to find you here and get you water? A few minutes? A few hours? Maybe not at all. When they can't find you, they'll have no choice but to fly off without you. And then what will you do?"

Katara dodged another blast, dragging her heavy cast across the ashes. Jolts of pain shot up her leg, sharp enough to make her cry. Was her ankle broken again? Or had it just not healed all the way in the first place, like the healer had said? She didn't know.

More flames. She laid as low to the ground as she could, but that didn't stop the fiery claws from ripping at her back. A scream tore through her throat.

"Which one would you rather give up? Ty Lee or Zuko? Come now, all I need is a place, and the pain will stop."

"I don't know where they are!" She didn't. All she knew was that they somewhere on the island. It had been almost an hour since she'd seen anyone.

A fire whip ravaged her back, searing her deeper than the other blasts. Her scream sounded distorted and shrill.

"Where is Ty Lee?" Azula demanded, bring the whip down a second time.

"I don't _know_!"

"Then where is Zuko?"

Agony lashed at her back again, but this time, she couldn't even manage a simple scream. A low sob broke free from her throat as she clawed at the ground in front of her. Burnt bits of grass came up between her knuckles.

The back of her gown had been almost completely incinerated. If she sat up, it would fall off. She didn't think she was going to live long enough to sit up again.

Another fire whip, this one somehow hotter than the others. She could hear the impatience in Azula's voice. "Where is Zuko?"

Katara tilted her head up, trying to roll so the whips didn't touch her scorched back again. She saw the narrow trail of blue rise up, behaving just like a real whip. This time, it laid a burning path over her arms, raised in defense. A moment later, Katara realized she could scream again.

"Last chance, peasant," Azula spat, thickening the whip. "Where. Is. Zuko?"

_I don't know. I don't know, you have to believe me. _She opened her eyes again, hoping she'd be able to dodge this attack.

And also hoping it would strike her down, and this torture would come to an end.

In a bare whisper, she said, "I don't know."

Anger flashed across the princess's face, and she moved her arm to bring the whip down. Katara saw the wisp of blue, and tried to push herself away from where she lay.

The world exploded with fire. Katara closed her eyes, accepting of her fate.

And then, she heard three words that changed everything. Three words, overflowing with fury, with a deadly rage she recognized from so many months of being hunted. She opened her eyes to look up at her savior, bathing in the waterfall of relief those three words brought.

"I'm right here," Zuko said, shooting another fireball at Azula.

Ty Lee

The footsteps pounded against the ground, each beat accented with urgency. Ty Lee looked up from the rippling ocean of grass, startled.

Sokka was running straight for her, his face burning with exertion, sweat dripping down the back of his neck. Something had gone horribly awry, she knew at once. "What is it?" she demanded, running toward him.

"Azula."

It was strange how one word could convey so much feeling. An icy finger ran down her back, tracing her spine and forming frigid icicles throughout her body. Her lungs ceased functioning, and what little oxygen she had left in her body came through her lips with a hiss.

In her time at the circus, she had learned how to fall properly, to avoid injury, then how to avoid falling altogether. Yet the sensation, the heart-stopping shock of losing her footing had always been present. She had felt it in the close calls, the near-disasters, even once or twice in her early days, when she'd been forced to take a fall into the net below.

She felt it again now, that awful fear that tore through the body during a fall.

_Azula, _she thought, as Sokka told her to run to Appa. _Azula's here, looking for me. _

"We have to go now," Sokka was saying. The words crept into her mind like a drop of water crawling down the curve of a blade of grass. It wasn't until he took her hand and started dragging her back toward the house that she thawed out enough to move.

"I can make it," she choked out. "You get Toph and Iroh."

Sokka nodded once, then bounded off, sprinting down the field.

She raced back to the house, keeping low, hoping to stay out of sight. Her mind had shifted out of the raw panic Azula's name had instilled in her, and into the numb urgency of disaster. As soon as she got to the house, she'd be safe. All she had to do was avoid Azula long enough for Sokka to round up everyone.

She hit the tree line and bolted through the woods, branches slicing her skin open as she ripped through them. Her feet pounded against the hard stone of the path, and she smashed her heel into the ground, almost running into a tree as she turned. As she twisted to race down the path, a dark figure stepped into her line of sight.

A grave silence passed over their shared bubble of space.

"So," Mai said, fingering one of her knives. Her dark eyes seemed drawn to the sharpened edge, glinting when the sunlight hit it. "I guess they decide to take you in after all."

Ty Lee just stood there, struck silent for the first time in her life.

"You know, I hate to side with Azula on this, but you really should've said goodbye in person."

"I couldn't," she whispered.

"I know. But you should have."

"Mai, I had to do it. This was my choice. It was the first time since I left the circus that I've _had _a choice. I put everything on the line for this. I left all my friends, my family, my _country_, for this. And you know what? I don't regret a thing."

The girl's eyes drifted up to her face. Someone who didn't know Mai as well as she did would assume the expression on her face was simple boredom, or the blankness that came from following duty without loyalty. But Ty Lee could see the strain behind those eyes, the struggle for control. Mai was always struggling for control; it was what she'd been taught ever since she could speak.

She waited, ready to dodge the sharp stilettos as soon as they came flying her way.

Mai sighed, sounding as if she'd just spent an hour watching grass grow(and as if Ty Lee herself hadn't just spent an hour doing the same). "Yeah, I know." She tucked her hands in her pockets, and leaned against a tree. "Get out of here then, before Azula gets done with your friends."

"Thank you," she whispered, running past the dark-haired girl. _Mai will always take my side, _she thought. _Even if Azula never would. Mai will always . . . _

That was the last thought she had before the knife buried itself six inches into her back.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"So you decided to show. How . . . _honorable_." She lingered on the last word, tormenting him.

Zuko shot forward, sending a wall of fire in his sister's direction. Azula swept his flames aside with a wave of her hand. "What do you want, Azula?" he demanded.

"Oh, that's easy." She stepped forward and threw a fireball in his direction. He threw himself to the ground, rolling so he landed on his feet again. "I want you out of the way so I can be the uncontested Fire Lord."

"I'm banished, in case you've forgotten." He shot several puffs of fire in her direction, each missing as she danced out of the way. "You don't _have _any competition. Besides, you have to wait until the current Fire Lord is dead." _I will not call him Father. Uncle was a better father to me. _

The princess grinned wider, taking a stance Zuko recognized all too well; he shifted his own feet and held out his arm, getting ready to redirect the bolt she was about to unleash.

Azula made a move to her left, her arm swinging wide. Zuko felt the earth drop out from beneath him. "No, don't!"

Lightning flashed in the meadow, throwing shadows with the unburned fire lilies. The electricity crackled, a sound unlike any other in the world. Horrified, Zuko watched the bolt arc through the air and strike the ground, inches away from Katara's seared body. The waterbender shrieked and clawed at the dirt, trying to get away.

The princess turned, fingers shooting out in his direction. Zuko fell back into the proper stance, and let the lightning come to him. Time slowed as the lightning raced toward him, traveling slower than natural lightning. It shot through his fingertips and followed the length of his arm, snapping his nerves like overstressed piano strings. Pain flared up his arm, similar to the burns he'd given himself in his failed attempt at lightning generation earlier today, but distinct in the electrifying fury of the pain.

He brought his hand to his stomach, channeling the energy away from his heart, until he felt like he was going to vomit. The lightning traveled up his body again, searing his veins from within. Something was wrong. All the other times he'd redirected lightning, the sensation had been nothing but exhilarating. Now, it was a crashing agony that shredded his body apart like a thousand knives being raked through his flesh. The electricity crackled up his other arm, making his muscles spasm.

He held the lightning in his hand for just a moment, his eyes still locked on Azula's smug face. Her arms were still set in the position they'd been when she'd shot the lightning at him, but he detected a subtle shift in her stance.

Knowing she'd redirect it back at him if he chose to retaliate, he loosed the bolt into the blue sky. As soon as it left his body, the path of agony it had carved faded to a dull, deep ache.

"Afraid to direct it back at me, Zu-zu?"

"No."

"Did Uncle teach you that move, or did you learn it from some filthy peasant? It certainly doesn't look like any kind of firebending I know."

"Maybe you're just out of the loop." He ducked down and swept his leg across the field, sending an arc of fire over what remained of the flowers. Azula launched herself into the air, almost as agile as Ty Lee. Before she landed, he sent a wall of flame in her direction. With the ease of a saber tooth moose-lion swatting away a firefly, she pushed away the blaze. She landed six feet closer, then rushed forward, hands cloaked in blue.

Close combat was something he was familiar with. When he'd masqueraded as the Blue Spirit, he'd relied primarily on his natural agility and his experience in hand-to-hand combat. It had served him well before. He could only hope it would give him an upper hand now.

He blocked Azula's first punch, slipping away just as a jet of flames shot out of her fist. She twisted, in the opposite direction he was expecting, and he was forced to duck to evade her attack. While close to the ground, he spun and brought his leg around, trying to hook her ankle and bring her down. Instead of falling, she executed a perfect back-flip, landing first on her hands, then bouncing back to her feet. In a rapid motion, she mimicked the spin he'd just attempted, arcs of fire shooting out from every limb. Zuko felt the greedy hands of fire wrap around his legs, searing his flesh, and bit back a howl.

Pain shifted to fear. Fear shifted to fury.

Zuko shifted stances, exposing a different side of his legs to the blue flames. His hand came forward, energy shooting down his arm and leaving a tingling sensation in his muscles. He felt almost the same way he had a moment ago, when he'd directed his sister's lightning. It was that kind of anguish.

It reached his fingertips, then doubled back, creating a shockwave that sent him flying and burned the bandages of his arms. He yelped as he hit the ground, the impact sending another flash of agony through his body.

"Is that it?" Azula taunted as he lay there. "I thought you'd have practiced your lightning generation since we last met. I expected you to at least be able to fire at will." Electricity crackled at her fingertips, casting twitching shadows across her face. Zuko struggled to find his footing. He had to be in the right stance, or else the lightning could pass through his heart.

"Stop it! Just stop it!"

The voice came from behind Azula, a pained wail that overshadowed the crackling electricity. Azula's golden-brown eyes flickered to Katara, and her full lips curved into a smile again.

_What are you doing? _Zuko wanted to ask, but he couldn't even stand through the pain, let alone try to reason with Katara.

"Yes, peasant?" Azula said, humoring the waterbender.

"Back on the ship, when I was your prisoner . . . you said you needed an ambassador to negotiate with the water tribes. If you spare Zuko, I promise, I'll act as a peacemaker for the Fire Nation. Please."

"Katara, no!" he rasped, from the ground.

"Let her speak, Zuko."

"I can't promise they'll agree to a truce, but I can convince them that it's in their best interest to join your nation in the war."

If Azula's smirk grew any wider, it would split her face in half. Zuko took a deep breath and rose to his knees, lifting his head to look at Katara.

Her gown, borrowed from Healer Zolena, had been incinerated in the back. The only thing keeping the piece on her body was a thin strip of fabric still clinging to her shoulder. Burns marred her previously perfect skin, a shocking sight Zuko was all too familiar with. The marks were indicative of fire whips. In spite of the horrific pain she must've been enduring, she pressed on. "You were right before. This war has gone on long enough. Whatever you want me to tell them, I'll do it."

"Oh, you peasants are so naïve. You believe every little lie you hear. The only reason I told you that in the first place was to get you off the ship without a fight. Did you _really _think the Fire Nation needs the help of your piddling little tribe to win this war? Your people are worthless scum compared to the Fire Nation."

Katara recoiled at the words, a look of fear mixed with fury flickering across her features.

Zuko brought one leg forward, and pushed his body upright, suppressing a groan. Katara's eyes flashed to him, then back to Azula. "Wait," the waterbender said, lifting one arm in a plea. "I still have something to offer the Fire Nation."

_Yes, _he thought. _Keep talking, Katara. I just need a few more seconds. _Every muscle crying out for mercy, he moved into a firebending stance, letting the energy flow through his beaten, burned body.

"And what would that be?" Azula asked, impatient.

"You said you were looking for Ty Lee. I lied before. I do know where she is."

"Mai is taking care of it."

"No, no. She's not on the island. She went off on a boat, with Sokka, trying to infiltrate the Capital City. You can still catch them before they break through the border."

The princess frowned.

Zuko lifted his arms, hand bunching up into a fist. It felt like a hundred needles were burrowing into the skin of his arm. _The key to firebending is in the breath, _he reminded himself, knowing he wouldn't be able to pull off the flashy movements of normal firebending.

"I'm a people person," Azula said. "And I already told you, I know when someone's lying."

Zuko brought his fist forward, slowly, each muscle tensing as a river of energy flowed through them. _Breathe out, then in. Again. _Heat built up in his knuckles, gathering there. _Another few seconds. _

Azula turned and sent a wall of fire in his direction. He lifted his arms to block the blast, but he still felt it wrap around his body, like a cloak. The inferno clung to him, turning orange after the first second. He rolled across the singed flowers, trying to put the flames out. His own firebending reached for the burning tufts, drawing them inside his body and smothering them without a conscious thought. Even as they went out, the burning sensation lingered.

The princess moved to send another blast toward the waterbender. Zuko watched helplessly as the plume traveled across the ground, his hand instinctively reaching for the girl in blue.

A wall of rock rose up from the ground, blocking the raging inferno. "Sorry, Princess Psychopath, but I'm afraid you'll have leave."

"Toph!" Zuko yelled in relief. The ground shifted below him, carrying him closer to the source of the voice. Toph emerged from the edge of the cliff, rising up on a stone platform. Sokka came up behind her, vaulting over the edge before the platform reached the top. Brandishing his boomerang like a sword, he raced toward Azula.

"You hurt my sister!" he yelled, hurling the boomerang around the barricade. It spun wildly, seeming to slice the air apart. Still, it missed Azula by over a meter before turning back in the warrior's direction.

Adrenaline flooding through his veins, Zuko fought to stand, then started running toward the raised platform. He saw Appa fly up over the edge, bypassing the blind earthbender and the water tribe siblings. The bison landed mere feet away from him.

Blood dripping down her back in a sticky stream, Ty Lee clung to the bison's reins. "Get on," she rasped. Zuko heard a deep gurgle in her throat, as if her lungs were filling up with water.

_Not water, _he thought. _Blood. _

He climbed onto the bison's saddle, then hurried to the front. "Ty Lee, give me the reins."

The acrobat handed him the leather straps without a word of protest.

"Appa, yip, yip."

Appa grumbled, then launched himself into the air. They flew the short distance to where Katara knelt, clutching her burns as she crawled away from Azula. Zuko held out his burned arms. "Take my hand."

The waterbender looked up, tears running down her face, and reached for his hand. He pulled her onto the saddle, then reached for Toph, coming up the other side. Sokka made a running leap, landing in the saddle with a thud. "Fly!"

Zuko commanded the bison to take to the sky again, flying them over the barren cliff and then diving. A stream of fire erupted above their heads, almost singeing his hair. Appa angled down, roaring. Zuko let the animal lead the way, only pulling up when they drew close to the beach. They leveled out, flying feet above the water. A stream of water rose from the sea, and he heard it move to the saddle behind him. A glance back showed him the silvery glow of Katara's healing powers, working against Ty Lee's knife wound, while the waterbender ignored the severe burns on her back and arms.

Zuko flew Appa closer to the water, glancing back to see Azula staring down at him from the cliff. She didn't strike, but he was still close enough to the fury in her eyes.

He held tight to the reins and looked away.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"I told you before: all that lightning messes with your chi."

He shrugged as she ran her water-soaked hands up his arm. Silver light emanated from his wounds wherever the cool water touched him, healing the burns from this morning now that the rest of his injuries had been tended to. "It was necessary."

Subdued, Katara said, "I know that. And I'm happy you came to rescue me."

"I'm glad there was something left to rescue." He thought about the burns on her back, visible even at a distance. He'd hadn't let her heal his wounds until she'd tended to the burns Azula had given her, but her rapid recovery hadn't pushed the image out of his mind. Her bare back, with hot, wet blood running down the sides and seeping into the scorched remnants of her gown . . . Belatedly, he realized she was still wearing the ruined garment the healer had put her in. The single, singed strap holding it in place kept her nipples covered, but he could see the defined curve of her left breast, just barely covered by the fabric, and he was finding it hard to concentrate.

They'd ridden on Appa's back all day and well into the night, flying as fast as they could in the hopes that Azula would grow tired of tracking them and try to regroup with the rest of her party. When the giant bison had grown fatigued and started sinking lower in the sky, Zuko had brought them down to a tiny speck of an island, a place with no visible buildings and no apparent civilizations. He'd been surprised how easily Appa responded to his commands, both verbal on mechanical, as if the great furry mass had learned to trust him in the short time he'd been living with the group. Perhaps the massive fur ball remembered the scarred face that had freed him from beneath Lake Laogai.

At any rate, they were the only two left at camp. During the ride, Sokka had informed him that he'd sent the water tribe warriors away to find his father, the chief of the Southern Water Tribe. Toph had gone off with Uncle to forage for food. Ty Lee had left to explore the island with Sokka, perhaps distracting herself with the shape of the palm leaves, or the faces she found in the coconuts, while the water tribe boy hunted for something with meat on its bones. Appa slept between two towering palm trees, and Momo had flown off with . . . someone. He couldn't recall who.

_That leaves me alone with Katara, _he thought, wondering how that always seemed to happen. He'd been alone with her every day before they'd met up with her group, and even then, he felt like he spent more time alone with her than he did with anyone in the rest of the gang, alone or in groups.

He was surprised to realize, not for the first time, that he didn't mind spending time with her.

As her healing water flowed over his burns and traced the network of energy in his body, a silence settled over them. Zuko tried staring at the leaves above to distract himself, but every few moments, his eyes drifted back to her half-exposed breast. He thought his intermittent glances were subtle enough not to prompt a reprimand, but his attention evidently didn't escape Katara's notice, because after a few moments, she spoke again.

"Are you lonely, Zuko?" she asked, eyes flickering down to her shirt, where he'd been staring a moment ago. He made a concentrated effort to look into her eyes.

"A little," he admitted. "I used to have a whole crew to talk to, back when I had a ship. I guess I'm used to the solitude now."

"Yeah, I guess so." She drew the water away from his arms and deposited it back into the sea. "I'm lonely, too. I used to work with Aang on his waterbending almost every day. But I guess I have to find something else to do, now that he's gone."

He was silent. It wasn't his place to talk about the airbender he'd known only as an enemy, especially not to said airbender's best friend.

Katara went on, seeming disappointed by his lack of response. "Feeling like you're all alone, like no one's there to talk to even when you have everything in the world to say . . . I know what that feels like. A few years after my mother was killed, my dad had to leave to fight in the war. He was the chief of the Southern Water Tribe, so he was expected to go, along with the rest of the men. I remember Sokka wanting to go along with him, even packing his bags like that would change dad's mind about the whole thing. But I was glad he didn't get to go. I had Gran-gran, but I couldn't stand to lose a father _and _a brother. That would've been three people I've lost to the Fire Nation. There's no way I would've been able to cope with that.

"But now, it feels like everyone is more distant than ever. Everyone's working on their battle techniques, and I understand that they each need to do that on their own time, but I just wish some of them would hang around the camp once in a while. Lately, it seems like you're the only one who ever talks to me."

"Sorry."

"No, don't be. I'm really glad I have you. After everything we went through . . . escaping Azula's ship together, tracking down my mother's killer . . . And after all that, you still went out of your way to help me. I would've died in those woods if you hadn't found me. I would've died by Azula's hand yesterday if you hadn't come looking for me. I just . . ." A rapid breath passed through her lips, as if she was fighting for control. "You're a better friend to me than most of the girls in my village. It seems like it shouldn't be that way, but it is."

"Katara . . ."

"I know you probably don't feel the same way about me. You probably think I'm a pain, always running off and needing to be rescued. I haven't been very useful lately at all." Another hitch in her breathing, this one the more distinct sound of oncoming tears. Zuko lifted his hand, as if he could somehow stop the torrent, but Katara just wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and shook her head. "I used to be like this all the time, before I became a master waterbender. You know that, though. You saw how pathetic my bending was in the beginning."

"It wasn't pathetic, exactly . . ."

A tear slipped down the side of her face, hanging on her cheek, threatening to fall, but remaining stubbornly suspended. Zuko stared at the transparent droplet, then slowly lifted his hand to her cheek and brushed it away. Her eyes flashed open, shimmering with unshed tears. Her hand rose to her face and held his hand there, in a very similar position they'd held when she'd touched his scar back at the healer's hut.

This time, when she leaned in to kiss him, he didn't pull away.

_Author's Note_

_Another short chapter, I know, but this seemed like a good place to end it. Fair warning, there will be some intense Lemon in the next chapter. It'll be my first attempt writing Lemon, so if you hate it, please tell me so I can fix it, and if you like it, I'd like to hear that, too. Thanks to everyone who's read this far, and another thanks to my loyal reviewers. I wouldn't know what to do without your feedback(I'd probably go crazy checking every five minutes for a review instead of actually writing something down)._


	29. Chapter 29

_Author's Note_

_I promised lemon, and there will be lemon. If you're not okay with that, skip this whole chapter. If you know me personally, please don't come up to me in the middle of the hallway and tell me you read this chapter. I don't want to think about that any more than I have to._

Chapter Twenty-Nine

His lips lingered on her mouth, parting slightly so he could breathe. Katara slipped her hands across his shoulders, feeling the rigid cords of muscle under his bare skin. He'd removed his shirt so she could work on the twisted chi paths throughout his body, but he hadn't put it back on yet, even though she was done with that section.

That boded well for her, she thought, trailing her fingers down the defined paths of his back. He shivered. "Katara, what are you doing?"

Her lips moved to the line of his jaw, her nose brushing against the rough surface of his scar. When her bottom lip touched his ear, she whispered. "Lie back." She pressed her hand over his heart and eased him into the sand, moving so her body laid lengthwise on top of his. "We're alone here. You don't have to worry."

She kissed him again, letting her eyelids slide open so she could see his face. She tried to imagine him without the scar for a moment, then realized it didn't matter to her. The scar gave him an air of nobility, of strength. It defined him in a way his sculpted muscles and golden eyes could not. When she kissed the rough skin on that side of his face, he exhaled and wrapped his arms around her waist to bring her closer. After a moment of hesitation, he let his fingertips trail across her back, almost totally bare after Azula's flames had ravaged her gown. If fire could burn without hurting, it would feel like this.

The soft skin of her lower lip swept across his again, her tongue flicking out to dance across his lip. It felt so empowering to lead this exchange. Everyone had always strived for her attention, but now, she was lavishing it on someone else.

And Zuko was responding. Between her thighs, she felt him stiffen.

She unclasped the top button of his pants, a relic from the ship Azula had imprisoned them on so many weeks ago, and slipped the sleek fabric off his legs, leaving his body bare except for one slippery undergarment. Zuko lifted his hand to the blackened edges of her burned gown, slipping it down her shoulder. She wriggled free of the cotton sheath, wearing only a piece of fabric over her breasts and another shaped to fit her pelvis. Her fingers traced up and down the muscular plates of Zuko's abdomen, teasing him. A moan broke free of his throat.

She slipped her fingers into the edge of his underwear and pulled them off, leaving him completely exposed. He slipped her makeshift bra off, tossing it in the sand, while she removed the fabric around her hips.

It was easy after that. Warmth radiated out from the firebender's skin, a perfect complement to her cooler temperature. She repositioned herself, so everything was lined up right, then eased herself down, waiting for a response. Zuko moaned again, hands clamping down around her hips. They rolled; sand slid down the sides of her body.

His golden eyes overflowed with an emotion more intense than she'd ever seen in him, but the nature of the emotion surprised her. It wasn't lewd lust, or base desire, but a sort of relief, as if he was lifting his face to the sky to thank the spirits for an answered prayer. Katara couldn't look away from those molten-gold eyes even as a jolt of pain surged through her as he penetrated deep into her body for the first time.

He moved back and forth, like waves in the ocean. His lips came down to kiss her again, hands caressing the curve of her breasts. She wriggled under him, adjusting their position ever so slightly, then cried out as the world dissolved in a luminous streak of pleasure around her. Her heart rate, already high from the tantalizing touches of a moment ago, doubled in speed, her breath coming faster. "Please . . . Please finish it," she whispered.

His hands tightened around her torso, his body settling over her. The extra weight pushed her over the edge, and brilliant white fireworks shot up into the sky above her, matching the fireworks coursing through her veins. She felt a sudden wetness between her thighs, overshadowed by the other sensations in her body.

When it was done, they were both breathing as if they'd just finished an intense sparring match. Zuko laid atop her for several minutes, his skin shining with a thin sheen of sweat. "I never thought I'd be here," he murmured, opening his eyes and brushing her hair aside so he could see her face.

"Here on this island, or here with me?"

"Here with you." He sounded sad, somehow. Did he doubt the permanence of this arrangement, or did he regret what had just happened? As if in answer to her fear, he continued. "I'm glad I am, though. Lately, I've been feeling so conflicted. I've always questioned what my purpose in this world was, even before I was banished. Did I really want to be Fire Lord? Would I be a good one if I was? And then later, after the banishment, I wondered how I could possibly regain my honor, when the Avatar had eluded the Fire Nation for over a century. If I did regain my honor, if I returned to the Capital City . . . How would I ever be able to face the people that had witnessed my greatest shame? How could I face them when every moment they looked at me, they saw the scars of the banished prince? How could anyone look at me without seeing the pathetic prince?

"I'm done asking those questions. It doesn't matter whether or not they see me for my shame. The only thing that matters is that I face them as who I am now, instead of who my father wanted me to be. I will become Fire Lord and end this war. I will restore peace among the nations. I'm going to face everything that's happened to me, and this time, I won't back down."

"That's very brave of you," Katara said. Zuko smiled faintly, and kissed her again, rolling over onto the sand. They put their clothes back on, shaking the granules of beach sand out of the folds of fabric. Dressing quickly so as not to be seen by any of the returning members of their group, they stood up and busied themselves with the camp chores, piling up kindling for a fire and washing clothes. Katara slipped away to the edge of the ocean to get water for a bath. Gran-gran had always told her love was messy, but she hadn't anticipated this part of it. A quick waterbending bath would do her some good, and remove any trace evidence of what had occurred. A special cup of tea tonight would take care of the rest.

Her clothes needed to be washed, too. _Or what's left of them. _She considered going back to Appa to find something more suitable to wear, then remembered that all their bags had been abandoned at the healer's hut in their hasty retreat.

_Well, it wouldn't be the first time I've gone naked today, _she thought, stripping off her soiled gown and walking into the sea.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

"Do you think Zuko will be okay?" Ty Lee asked.

Sokka stared into the water, glad that the little bay left this little spot ringed in palm trees so he had some basic cover. The water tribe warriors had lent him a spear to catch fish, an implement he'd been carrying with him on that fateful trip to the beach. Even though Katara was perfectly capable of just bending the fish out of the ocean, the gift had inspired him to go spear fishing again, like he'd used to do at the South Pole. "He'll be fine," he said, following the movement of a fish with his eyes. It circled in the water, waiting to be caught. "If Katara can heal a knife wound like that, she can heal a couple burns on a firebender."

_Perfect, _he thought, as the fish made a slow turn near his feet. He jabbed the spear into the water, compensating for the surface refraction, as he'd learned to do from a very young age. A cloud of blood poured out of the fish, diffusing through the saltwater and getting pinker as it went. He stepped out of the water, not wanting to get torn to pieces by any number of blood-frenzied sharks, and held up his catch for inspection. The bloody creature continued to flop around on the end of his spear, writhing in an attempt to escape so it could die in the water. He set it down on the sand, took out his club, and finished the job by smashing the fish's head in.

Ty Lee watched this motion with apparent distaste. "Is that really necessary?" "Yes. It saves the fish a lot of pain. Now he won't have to bleed out for the three or four minutes it takes for him to suffocate." He pried the dead fish off the end of the spear, and hung it on the meat hooks on his back, with the rest of his catch. He rinsed his hands in the sea, to get the blood off, then stood up and looked at the acrobat. "You don't have to watch, if you don't want."

"I know, but . . . I like spending time with you."

He sidestepped the implications of that statement by saying, "Five fish should be plenty for dinner, don't you think? I can split the big one with Toph; she doesn't eat much."

"Yeah, I guess . . ."

He started for the patch of land where Appa had settled after their landing. Ty Lee walked behind him, her shoulders sunken down further than usual. _It's all for the better, _he told himself, suppressing a pang of guilt. _Suki is still out there somewhere. I'm sure she'll be happy to see me. _The thought of the Kyoshi warrior dressed up in her battle gear and brandishing a pair of folding fans made him smile. Of course, he hadn't even seen Suki since they'd crossed paths on the Serpent's Pass. _But she did kiss me. That must mean something. _

A spot of light appeared through the trees, where Appa had come to rest. For a moment, Sokka panicked, thinking Azula had come after them and ravaged their camp. Then, through the gaps in the trees, he saw Zuko set a log on the blaze, and relaxed.

"Hey, Zuko," he said, only realizing how informal he sounded when the firebender glanced up in surprise. _Well, I suppose that works as well as anything. He looks like he could use someone to talk to. _"How did things go at camp?"

"Fine," he answered, a sheepish look on his face. "I see you caught a lot of fish."

"Yeah." He held up the hooks attached to his back, displaying his fallen targets for the whole camp to see. "We should probably start cooking. Can you get Toph? I think she's off foraging with your Uncle."

Zuko's expression shifted slightly. Sokka detected a trace of fear in his face, as if the mere thought of associating with any member of the group could cost him a limb.

But the firebender just stood up and said, "Yeah, sure."

_So he still thinks one of us is going to kill him in his sleep, huh? _He wondered if Ty Lee had felt the same way in her first few days here. _Probably not. No one can stay that perky under threat. And anyway, Ty Lee's not the type to linger too long on worry._

He set the fish down and started spearing them on a spit, so he could roast them over the fire. Ty Lee sat down beside him and did the same, seeming less squeamish than she had at the beach. Out of nowhere, she said, "That was pretty heroic, what you did back there. Making sure everyone got away safe, I mean."

"Uh . . . Thanks." He lifted the first fish over the coals, letting the embers float up around it. The acrobat emulated his technique after a moment of observation.

"It just seems like, if you hadn't run up there so fast, I wouldn't have known what to do after Mai . . . after she hit me. I might have just lied there, waiting for her to finish the job."

Something went unspoken between them for a moment while their fish cooked.

"Katara healed me before . . . Back when she was Azula's prisoner, and we were leading her off the ship to be taken into custody. The fight went sour so fast, and then I got burned to a crisp with all that lightning . . . I thought I was going to die. No. I _knew _I was going to die. So I just closed my eyes and let everything slip away, like sand between my fingers.

"A few days later, I woke up in the royal palace. My hair was all gone, except for a few clumps that hadn't been burned or cut off. I was wearing these awful brown clothes from the infirmary. It was the only time in my life when I hated the whole world.

"But I was alive. I found out what happened later, when I talked to Mai. Your sister had healed me before she'd escaped the ship. She was my enemy, but she'd still saved my life. I didn't understand. I struggled to cope with the thought that she might be a better person than either of my friends. Eventually, I began to realize Azula was wrong, and that there were people out there who were capable of mercy, of kindness. And I couldn't bring myself to fight alongside Azula anymore.

"It's funny how one event can change everything. Thinking back, if it had been Azula who'd saved me, or even just one of her healers, I would still be with her, trying to kill all of you."

He stared into the flames, contemplating her story. Katara hadn't mentioned that part, when they'd been flying to the healer's hut. "Victory often relies on the little things," he said. "A run-of-the-mill soldier who takes out an enemy commander is hailed as a hero. A shift in the wind reveals your enemy's scent to your dogs, giving you time to prepare for battle. A leader's choice to take a detour around an obstacle saves his men from an ambush."

"A warrior chancing upon an approaching army when no one else is looking out for his people, and saving everyone," she added, turning her metal spit over the fire so the fish cooked evenly.

He nodded. "These tiny shifts often decide the difference between victory and defeat. When you look back in history and notice all the little details, the things that could've so easily turned out the other way, you realize how fragile our world is. There's no such thing as certainty, no such thing as an unbeatable opponent. And that's why we have to keep trying, no matter how slim the chance of success is."

The acrobat nodded solemnly. "I guess sometimes we just have to leave it all up to fate."

Azula

Her hand rested over the ashes of the field, smearing her skin with gray residue. It was all gray, the meadow around her. All destroyed, burned away by her fire. Even the trees, unscathed by the inferno, were coated in a layer of gray, their striking jade leaves covered up by the remnants of the destruction.

_Failure. _

The word hit her ears like a machete striking a piece of flint. The blade struck over and over again, trying to elicit a spark from the stone.

_Failure. Disgrace. _

A fine layer of ash had settled over her face. The bruises were gone now, long healed. Her body wasn't quite so stiff anymore; in fact, the battle had loosened up her joints and warmed her muscles for the first time outside of training in weeks. By all rights, the adrenaline rush of a real fight should've put her high above the world, even if the battle had ended in failure.

_Failure. Disgrace. Shame._

She imagined her face painted the same whitish gray of the scorched earth around her. Two clean streaks marred the ghastly mask, running from the bottom edge of her eye to her chin in symmetrical lines.

_Failure. Failure. Failure._

Behind her, a soft padding sound fell across what remained of the grass, as soft and unassuming as footsteps across a field of snow. Azula waited until the sound drew close, then stood up. She didn't turn, though. Showing such shameful weakness in the face of betrayal was pathetic. They'd both betrayed her. First, her banished brother, who had no right to refuse anything she offered, even imprisonment. And then Ty Lee—Ty Lee who'd left her alone when the end had been in sight.

_Failure. _

"She got away from me," came a bored voice. "I put that knife six inches into her back, and she still got away from me."

"I see," Azula said.

"_You're a failure, Azula. Letting the rebels slip away before you even made it to port. You're starting to seem like your pitiful brother."_

"_No Father, I'm nothing like him. I'll kill them both on the spot next time I see them."_

And then the hand had flicked out and smashed her across the face, the movement so casual and swift it left her no defense. A second blow followed, then a third, all mechanical, as if the person striking her cared nothing for the beating.

"_Next time you set out to do something, you will do it without failure. Do we have an understanding?" _

"_Yes Father."_

That had always been her answer. _"Yes Father." _It echoed around in her head now, like a hemiola in music: eighth notes overlaid by triplets.

_Failure, failure, failure._

_Yes Father, Yes Father._

"I can't go back," she whispered.

Mai said nothing, but Azula still waited a beat for Ty Lee to respond. But, of course, she didn't.

"I can't go back a failure. I can't go back until I've destroyed them."

Another moment. Mai sighed. "I'll tell the captain to ready the ship."


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One

The sand shifted under her feet, moving more like water than rock. Toph's toes curled in concentration, but she still couldn't sense anything beyond a few fuzzy feet of sand, no matter how hard she concentrated . She tried condensing the granules so they were solid, like stone, but that still only a few feet of perception around her, and the mere act of changing it to solid rock defeated the purpose of the exercise.

It didn't matter anyway. Her ears still hear the muted footsteps sifting through the sand, and when she heard the faint whisper of shifting specks of rock, she whipped around and raised her arms in defense.

"Don't attack!" Zuko yelped, startled by the cloud of sand she lifted from the beach. She could feel the grains scatter all around her, but as soon as they lost contact with the whole, they became, like everything in the air, invisible to her. Toph sighed and lowered her arms.

"Don't sneak up on me."

"I wasn't trying to. I thought you were impossible to sneak up on."

_Not on sand, _she thought, walking toward the voice. _And definitely not in the Spirit World. _

"I thought you were out foraging with my uncle," Zuko said. She was just close enough to feel his arms extend in a gesture of . . . of what? Surprise? Annoyance? At this distance, atop the shifting sand, she couldn't get a clear picture of his facial expressions. Toph shrugged. "I wasn't much help in identifying the plants, so I decided to practice my sandbending. What are _you _doing here?"

"Sokka's making dinner."

_Yikes. _"Why? Is Katara sick, or something?"

There was an uncomfortable edge to his voice. "No . . . She's fine."

"Oh." _Why do you sound so tense then? _She didn't ask. Zuko was skittish around every member of their group, preferring his solitude or Katara's company over any other interactions. Sokka had probably had to push him halfway to the beach.

"I'll go in a minute," she told him, turning back to the hazy sea of sand. "I just want to work on my sandbending a little more."

"Okay." He turned, seeming relieved to break away from the conversation. His shoulders were stiff with worry, and his heartbeat seemed even higher than usual. Toph smiled at the thought that she, a twelve-year-old blind girl, intimidated the hotheaded prince of the Fire Nation. _If only he knew my wrestling history, _she thought wryly, lifting a wave of sand from the surface and flinging it out to sea.

Zuko

He'd always been able to go to Uncle for anything, but the thought of telling the aging man about his recent encounter filled him with a deep sense of dread.

_He wanted me to get a love life, _Zuko told himself, as he came up behind his uncle. The tea-loving old man had knelt down beside a colorful plant, bearing jagged leaves striped with red. Without even glancing back to see who was approaching, Uncle plucked a leaf from the bush and spoke. "You seem troubled, nephew."

"Troubled?" he echoed, his heart rate doubling. "What are you talking about? I'm not troubled."

"Have you ever had tea made from the leaves of the Dragonback Bush? It grows only in the Fire Nation, and can be made into a brew that is simply exquisite."

"Uh . . . No, I don't think so. Um, dinner's almost ready. Sokka went fishing this morning."

Uncle looked up, tearing another leaf from the plant. "Excellent. Dragonback tea goes perfectly with fish."

"Yeah . . . I'm going to . . . go make sure Sokka doesn't burn them." He turned, cursing himself for his inability to face up to what had just happened. Uncle stood up behind him, sandals shifting across the sand.

"Zuko."

"Yes, Uncle?"

"I have been traveling with you over three years now. I know when you are under stress. Are you having difficulty getting along with one of our group?"

"No, Uncle." _Quite the opposite. _

"Perhaps a shared meal between all of us will ease the tension a bit. I can understand you being nervous about the position you are in, after all that's happened, but I assure you, you have my full support."

"I know that."

"Then let's go back, and eat with the rest of our friends."

_Friends. _The word echoed in his mind, a foreign concept after so many years. The last time he'd had friends, he'd been a child. _And that was just Mai and Ty Lee. And I was only _sort _of friends with them because Azula liked to keep them around. _"Actually, I do have a question," he decided, turning back. His uncle waited for him to sort out his thoughts. "How can I make them like me? I know I'll need people to like me if I ever become Fire Lord, and I need these people in particular to like me _now _so I can make it that far, but I have no idea how to start."

Uncle smiled, seeming pleased with his sudden interest in making friends. "Ah, I see. The best way to develop a friendship is to share something personal about yourself. You will find that you are a much more amicable man when you share your experiences with them."

"Like what? How I've spent the majority of the last three years hunting down their now-dead friend, or how I was banished by my own father?" _Or how I slept with Katara an hour ago? _

Uncle shrugged. "I'm sure you will think of something. If nothing else, listen to their conversations and wait until inspiration hits you."

Zuko sighed, his eyes drifting to his feet. "We should head back. Sokka might need help with the fish."

The tea-loving man had come to know when his nephew was done listening to his advice. They walked in companionable silence back to the campsite.

Toph met up with them on the way, finding them with ease even through the thick jungle. When they reached the fire where Sokka and Ty Lee were cooking, Zuko saw Katara making soup and casting wary glances toward her brother. From what he could tell, though, Sokka had yet to seriously damage the fish. In fact, they smelled mouthwatering, with their smoky fragrance mingling with the subtle blend of spices in the soup.

_Maybe she's nervous about him finding out, _Zuko thought, a pit forming in his stomach.

"I brought tea leaves," Uncle announced, grinning widely. Zuko noticed how everyone, thought occupied, looked over and grinned at his exuberance.

Somehow, he didn't think it could possibly be that simple.

"I've got water for the leaves," Katara responded, pulling a stream of saltwater from the sea, changing it to steam to force the salt out, then condensing it for the tea kettle. "I found some pots and pans in the stuff we managed to bring with us." With a satisfied smile dawning on her angelic face, she turned in his direction and held up a stack of bowls. "The soup's ready whenever you want to eat."

Everyone stood at the call to dinner, except Sokka and Ty Lee, still roasting their fish over the fire. Katara poured a bowl for each of them, showing off her bending as she levitated the soup into the porcelain dishes, then brought a bowl to her brother and Ty Lee, since they were still working on the fish.

Zuko didn't know what to say when she handed him a bowl a moment later; they hadn't spoken since their interlude in the sand earlier today, and he wasn't sure how to approach her about that without an audience close at hand.

So instead of bringing it up, he took the bowl and said, "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

_It's so natural for her. How does she do it? _

The fish had finished cooking now. Sokka handed a piece to everyone in the circle, giving without reservation or a request for an expression of gratitude, and they ate.

"So, it looks like that fishing spear the warriors gave me works," Sokka said, admiring the hunting weapon. "It might be better than my old one."

_Just join the conversation. _"Your old spear?"

"Yeah. It was the one you snapped in half at the South Pole."

There was a beat of silence. Zuko stared down at his soup. "Yeah, that sounds like something I would do."

The water tribe boy just shrugged. "Doesn't matter, anyway. Like I said, this one's better than the old one."

"Not that you even need to go fishing with Katara around," Toph chimed in, her words muffled through a mouthful of fish.

The young warrior glared at the blind girl, to no effect. "Just you wait. One day, I'm going to be skilled in a dozen different weapons, and then you'll all stop making fun of me."

"Don't take it personally, Sokka," Zuko told him. "People used to make fun of me because I could barely firebend." Everyone glanced up at that except Uncle. Apparently, the firebending he'd displayed so far had led them to believe he had natural talent, like Azula.

"Since when were you ever bad at firebending?" Katara asked.

"Believe it or not, I still didn't have it down by the time I met all of you."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Katara's eyebrows slant back in confusion. "But . . . I don't remember you ever being . . ."

"That's because your perspective was skewed. Of course you thought I was good. You'd never met a master. You never even received formal training until you reached the North Pole.

"In any case," he went on. "I didn't start getting good at firebending until after I was banished. Azula was the prodigy in the family. All the extra training and attention went to her, no matter what I did."

"But you can beat her now, right?" Sokka asked. On the surface, the question was benign, even disinterested, but he could hear the edge of urgency in the words.

"Probably not. At best, I might be able to match her in a fair fight. But then, she wouldn't be Azula if she fought fair." He thought of the burns Azula had left on Katara's back, the wicked look in her brown eyes as she'd shot lightning at the waterbender, to throw him off. He remembered how, for a split second, he had wavered, lost his focus.

_No. Azula never fights fair. _"I have to take her down. If she's still standing when Ozai falls, she'll take his place. She's cruel and cunning, but that's the kind of leader the Fire Nation is used to. They'll welcome her with open arms, and when they do, any favor I might have cultivated in the Fire Nation will be lost. If there is any hope for peace in the four nations, Azula must never be allowed to rule the Fire Nation."

The others exchanged looks of unease. His uncle stood up and walked slowly to the tea kettle. "You will not have an easy time overcoming your sister," he said, pouring the tea into the first of several cups. "It may be wise to bring backup."

"I know," he said. And that was all he said.

_Author's Note_

_I know, another note. Just wanted to say, sorry it took so long for this chapter to come up, and I might not be able to post again until December. I'll try to work some fanfiction into the next couple weeks, but I've got to finish my personal writing projects first. Anyway, thanks for reading, and thanks to those of you who review. Your comments have kept me entertained between bouts of writer's block, and your praise has helped me develop my skills these past few chapters._


	32. Chapter 32

_Author's Note. _

_A little earlier than we all expected, I know. I got bored over Thanksgiving break. Anyway, here's chapter thirty-two._

Chapter Thirty-Two

"So after our ship lands in port, we wait for them to take the boxes we're traveling in off the boat. Then, while everything else is being unloaded, we break free and slip away, to the edge of the city. We'll have to wait until the Day of Black Sun to actually strike, but as soon as people start to slip away into their hiding places for the eclipse, we run for the palace." Sokka looked up from his haphazardly drawn diagram in the sand. The first person he looked to was Zuko, sitting across the circle from him. The Fire Nation prince was probably the most likely to spot a flaw in the plan, aside from his uncle, busy brewing tea. "Will it work?"

The firebender considered that a moment, then nodded. "Barring any unforeseen baggage checks, I think we'll be fine."

"When I mentioned stowing away on a ship," Ty Le began, running a finger through her short hair. "I kind of imagined us hiding away on a cruise ship, or something nice like that."

"I know. But this is the safest way. The less contact we have with the Fire Nation, the more likely we are to go unnoticed. Delivery boats pass through the harbor every day, you said so yourself."

"We'll want to pick a ship close to the Capital City," Toph chimed in. "Even someone small like me is going to have trouble staying packed up in a box that long."

Sokka nodded; he'd thought of that. "There are plenty of ports near the city. We'll be able to stow away on something headed directly to the capital's harbor. Maybe a food delivery ship, or something like that. We won't know until we get there."

There was some agreement all around the fire. "That sounds like a great plan, Sokka," Katara told him, standing up. "We'll attack the Fire Nation from within while Dad attacks from outside." "There will be mass panic," Zuko added. "Anyone not already sheltering during the eclipse will scatter. We should be able to cut a path straight to the palace."

"There's the matter of guards," Sokka said, imagining the scene. It hadn't been so difficult to get into the Earth King's castle, but of course, there was no war in Ba Sing Se. "Do you know who's likely to be guarding the palace during the eclipse?"

The firebender exchanged a glance with his returning uncle. "Foot soldiers may be guarding the palace proper, but all the skilled defenders will be holed up wherever the royal family is hiding. Firebending masters would be useless in a fight, so they'll probably bring in their elite non-bending forces. The Yu-Yan archers, maybe."

Iroh nodded, turning to his nephew. "Do not forget, our firebending will be just as useless that day. We must prepare ourselves for that."

"I need a new pair of dual swords. I lost mine when Azula took us captive."

"Where are we going to find dual swords?" Sokka asked.

Zuko stood, turning away from the flames so they illuminated the unscarred side of his face. "When I was a child, I learned the art of the sword from a great master. Learning swordplay when you were a firebender was considered shameful, since it showed your bending was too weak to defend you, so the whole event was kept quiet. My master was known only to take a few select students, only those who showed themselves to be worthy. His name was Piandao."

_A sword master? _Sokka thought, a glimmer of possibility coming to life his mind. For a long time, he'd been the only non-bender of the group. He'd fallen behind the rest of them, unable to counter their bending prowess with his simple weapons, and of little use in a real combat situation. But perhaps with a new technique . . .

Sokka stood up. "I'm coming with you," he said, trying to sound positive so no one would argue with him. "I want to see if this sword master will take me as his student."

"He lives in the Fire Nation. You won't be able to tell him who you really are."

"I know that. I'm still going."

The young firebender gave him an appraising glance, then closed his eyes. "We leave at dawn. We'll be there no more than ten days. Whatever you learn from him in that time span will have to carry you through the eclipse."

Sokka nodded, not bothering to suppress his smile. "Dawn, then. I'll pack my things."

Zuko

Like their previous flight, Appa seemed to have no objections to letting him hold the reins. Since Sokka didn't know where to find Master Piandao's castle, it fell on Zuko's shoulders to fly them there.

He'd thought it would be awkward, traveling alone with Sokka after what had happened with Katara, even though her brother wasn't aware of it, but the water tribe boy seemed a more amiable companion than most of the others. He spoke little during their flight, occupying himself with the care and cleaning of weapons that would fall by the wayside as soon as he had a sword in his hand.

At one point, Sokka mentioned something about the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. Zuko remembered them vaguely from his days of hunting the Avatar. If he recalled correctly, he'd torched their village during the hunt, only to have the Avatar slip from his grasp like grains of sand through loose fingers. The last he'd heard of them had been when Sokka had mentioned them in passing as they sat around the campfire.

"Do you have any idea where their leader might have been taken? Since Azula and the others had their uniforms, I can only assume they've been imprisoned somewhere."

A dozen possibilities flitted through his mind, the foremost thought being about the Boiling Rock. He said as much to Sokka, then explained about the prison's namesake when prompted.

"That . . . doesn't sound like a good place."

"It's not. No one has ever escaped the Boiling Rock. It is the single most secure prison in the Fire Nation, and it's the only one that stands out to me as a place where they would take a war leader with no bending powers."

Sokka nodded. "Do you think we'll be able to find her there?"

"Maybe. I wouldn't try, though. Once you get into the Boiling Rock, the only way out is on the gondola, and those are controlled by the top-level guards. We'd never make it out of there before they cut the rope."

"Oh."

"I'll have Suki released as soon as I become Fire Lord. Until then, there's nothing we can do."

"And you're _sure_?"

"Positive." The word was cold like steel. "Whatever happens to her until then, we have no control over, but if she's as tough as her position leads me to believe, she should be fine."

Some of the spirit went out of Sokka then, like a deflated war balloon. Zuko turned his attention back to the reins, correcting their course. Without guidance, the flying bison flew only in a straight line, covering as much distance as possible even when his riders sat idle on his back.

Three hours later, they reached the familiar town of Shu Jing. _It's been a long time, _he thought, catching sight of his old master's restored castle. _I wonder if he'll even remember me. _

A darker thought flashed through his mind. _I wonder if he'll be ashamed of what I've become. _

They landed on the edge of a deserted cliff, resting just above the town. There was enough foliage here to keep Appa occupied in their absence, and unless someone passed directly over this village and looked down at this section of cliff, the bison wouldn't be noticed.

"Are you ready for this?" Zuko asked, as they unloaded their belongings from the saddle. Sokka nodded, over his brief depression.

They descended down the winding curve of the cliff, then made a sharp turn for the restored palace Piandao lived in. Sokka kept looking over his shoulder in paranoia, and Zuko was about to tell him to cut that out before he remembered that the warrior's anxiety was well-founded. _We're all enemies of the Fire Nation now, _he told himself. _And my face is widely known. If we were to cross paths with the wrong person, it's over. _

They reached the castle gates, pausing at the door to exchange a quick glance. Without a word between them, Sokka stepped forward and pulled on the rope attached to the bell. A loud ringing reverberated off the cliff faces, echoing around with its unique song.

Several minutes passed, and he could see the water tribe warrior edging up to the bell to ring it again. Before he did, though, a gray haired man wearing red Fire Nation robes opened the castle gates and looked at them with a dull expression. "Yes?" the man said impatiently.

"We're here to see Master Piandao," Zuko told him, trying to remember the gray-haired man's name. The man had been present when he'd trained here as a kid, and Zuko could vaguely remember feeling amused at his name for some reason, but he couldn't call it back.

The man sighed. "Right this way."

They were led through the gates and up to the doorstep. The man held the door open for them, bowing as they passed. The gesture brought the memory flooding back to Zuko. _Oh, yeah, he was Piandao's butler, Fat. No wonder I used to laugh at his name. _

"Master Piandao is in his chambers. You may wait here while I summon him."

Zuko bowed in traditional Fire Nation style, glancing over at Sokka, to make sure he was mimicking the movement correctly, instead of using the hand position the rest of the world used. It seemed the boy had been watching closely, though, because his representation of Fire Nation customs was spot on.

Once Fat retreated upstairs to speak with the sword master, Zuko thought of something. "We need to think of a name for you."

"I _have _a name."

"Not _your _name. We need something that sounds Fire Nation."

"Okay . . . Like what?"

Several ideas flickered through his mind, mostly the names of his family members. Then he thought of a less conspicuous name. "Lee. Your name is Lee."

"But there are a million Lees."

He rolled his eyes. "That's the point. It's the least conspicuous name you could possibly have." He glanced up the stairs, not wanting to be overheard in case anyone was coming down. "Trust me; it'll work. I used that name after I became a fugitive. No one will suspect a thing."

The quick tap of footsteps on the stairs silenced them, and they stood at attention in the doorway.

Master Piandao had aged gracefully in the years since Zuko had last seen him. His hair was still the same dark shade it had been before, and his face had only a few wrinkles to mark his years. His daily relaxation techniques had done exactly as he'd intended, leaving his face youthful and body lithe when he ought to look like Uncle.

"Prince Zuko, I'm surprised to see you back here after so long."

_There goes that plan. _He bowed deeply to his old teacher, abashed. "I'm honored to see you again, Master Piandao."

The dark-skinned man examined him, then glanced over to Sokka. The water tribe warrior bowed, startled into courtesy. "And I'm honored to make your acquaintance. My name . . ."

Zuko waited, wondering whether Sokka would try to stick with the plan, or if he realized the game was up, and that, with the banished prince at his side, there was no point in hiding his true identity.

"My name is Sokka."

The sword master nodded thoughtfully. "Sokka. That's an interesting name." He said no more on the subject, merely turning to his butler. "Fat, will you please make some tea for our guests? It seems my old student has a story to tell."

_And what a story it is. _He couldn't imagine Master Piandao had been left out of the loop about his status as a traitor. Was he asking about the story to acquire sufficient evidence to turn him in? That hardly seemed likely, when his name and face alone proved he was a traitor. Perhaps his old master was allowing him a chance to plead his case.

If that was it, he'd be found guilty for sure. He had no explanation for how he'd ended up with a member of the Southern Water Tribe at his side except for the truth, and the truth was enough to get him executed here in the Fire Nation.

"Come with me," Piandao said, beckoning them with a flick of his fingers. He turned toward the antechamber leading to his personal study, leaving them no choice but to follow.

They did.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three

A wisp of steam rose from Zuko's third cup of tea as Fat set it down on the table. Piandao thanked the man quietly, then dismissed him from the room.

"You've been through much since I last saw you, Prince Zuko."

"I know you must be ashamed of me. I've brought dishonor on the family and on myself since I've seen you last."

"Yes," the sword master said simply. Zuko winced. "But you have also chosen a better path for yourself, and continue to fight for peace. You may have lost the honor your title gave you, but, with your struggles and the hard decisions you've had to make, you've gained a more potent sort of honor."

The praise sounded odd to his ears, coming from someone other than Uncle.

"As for the Dual Dao Blades . . . I think I can help you forge a new pair, with sharper edges. But first . . ." He turned toward Sokka, the corners of his mouth tilting up in a smile. "I believe I have a new prospective student."

Sokka gulped, suddenly nervous. Zuko rested a hand on the boy's shoulder, in a gesture of comfort, then stood.

"If you like, you can train with Fat in the sparring arena while I speak to Sokka."

"Thank you, Master Piandao." He bowed, then walked out of the room.

Even after years of absence, the passages within the castle were familiar to him. He'd spent the better part of a year here, training, and even then, his childlike curiosity had driven him to explore every room in detail. Little had changed, except for the gardens outside and some minor detail work in each of the rooms. Master Piandao had everything exactly as he liked it, and while he occasionally tinkered with things to suit his changing tastes, his overall worldview hadn't changed much in the intervening years.

Fat was putting on a padded suit in the sparring ring outside, getting ready for their match. Whether he'd overheard the tail end of their conversation, or inferred his master's will while serving tea, Zuko could not be sure. He didn't ask, either, just sat down on the edge of the arena and started putting on padded clothes fitted to his body's shape and height.

Their match was not quite as uneven as it had been years ago. Zuko's body was stronger now, and Fat's strength was beginning to wane with advancing age. That didn't make the sparring any easier than it had been before. Fat always held back against younger students, not wanting to seriously injure them. Now that he was a man grown, Zuko was subjected to the full extent of the butler's skill. Twice, the old man knocked him flat on his back, the wooden practice sword poking into the skin of his throat. After that, Zuko began to find his rhythm again, dancing out of the way of the harder blows and blocking whatever other attacks he could. Within the hour, they were both breathing hard and covered in sweat.

Not long after, Sokka came out to the sparring arena. His face was stained black with what appeared to be ink, but the smile on his face told Zuko all he needed to know. "So I guess you've been accepted."

The warrior's smile widened. "Yeah. Master Piandao is bringing me up to some special cliff to do some training."

_Some painting, you mean, _Zuko thought, remembering when his old master had taken him up to the cliffs overlooking the waterfall. "Good luck."

"Zuko," Piandao said, walking through the door. "Keep practicing with Fat until we return. Fat, teach him whatever you can while I'm away."

They bowed as the dark-skinned man led Sokka toward the front gate, then turned toward each other, each taking a fighting stance.

Katara

Something indefinable had shifted since her encounter with Zuko. Her shoulders didn't sag in grief anymore, and her shoes no longer filled up with sand because she no longer dragged her feet. More than anything, though, sleeping with Zuko had given her a queer sense of pride, added a self-assured edge to every thought.

"You seem awfully chipper," Ty Lee remarked as she pranced over to the campfire. Katara supposed that was a signal to tone it down, so she just shrugged. "Something good happen, or what?"

"I'm just excited for the eclipse, that's all." She used her bending to pull some water from the sea, and then turned it to steam and back to water to purify it. It was a trick Master Pakku had taught her back at the North Pole, and she found it much more convenient than the standard ways of removing salt from the liquid. "The plan seems solid, and if we defeat the Fire Lord, Zuko will be able to take over and declare this war over."

"Well . . . There's still Azula to consider," Ty Lee said sheepishly, as Katara moved the water into a tea kettle and started warming it over the coals. "It's not like she's just going to step down and let him claim the throne."

"It's going to get taken care of. Maybe not at the same time, but the loss at the catacombs was a narrow thing. If we could just . . ." She trailed off, remembering the Crystal Catacombs under Ba Sing Se, remembering how much that little venture had cost the world.

_Aang would still want us to fight for peace, _she told herself. _He would've wanted us to end the war. _

"If we could just what?"

"If we could just face Azula, all at once, it would be almost easy."

The acrobat frowned, her eyes drifting toward the ground. "Azula is a powerful enemy. It's in her very nature to be as perfect as possible, to overpower anyone in her way and burn the world to ashes in the process. In the Fire Nation, showing any kind of weakness is shameful, worthy of the worst kind of contempt.

"But . . . Sometimes I can see the cracks forming under the surface. The tiny flaws. All the little bits of herself she suppresses. Those little cracks that have been forming and expanding since before I ever met her. Back at the healer's hut, when I flew up to the cliff on Appa . . . for just a second, she looked at me, and I saw the cracks all over again, saw how they'd splintered in my absence. When she saw me, something in her fractured, something that had been edging closer to destruction for so long."

Ty Lee looked up, her eyes solemn pools of gray. "I'd known about the beatings Ozai gave her for a long time," she whispered, so quiet Katara had to strain just to make out the words over the faint crackle of embers. "He beat the weakness out of her, left her sharp-edged like a sword and just as cold. But that steel she's forged from is a brittle substance. When she can no longer handle the weight of her attempted perfection, she will shatter. And that day is soon coming."

Katara blinked. "Ozai . . . beats her?"

Ty Lee nodded. "Like I said, signs of weakness are abhorred in the Fire Nation. Any fault in her behavior would prompt swift reprimand. Of course Ozai would beat her for her shortcomings." She frowned, seeming to stare through the burning logs and into a faraway realm. "It never mattered how much makeup she put on the bruises. The swelling on her body always gave her away." The acrobat's face turned toward the beach, staring out at the sunset. The orange light illuminated every tuft of her shortened hair, making her look like she wore a crown of fire.

"Why are you telling me this?" Katara demanded. She didn't want to feel sympathy for Azula, didn't want to pity the princess who had killed Aang, the only hope left in the world.

Didn't want to admit to herself that killing Azula would be murder, no matter how justified it seemed.

"So you understand the scope of your decision before you kill her," Ty Lee answered.

"But you _must _know we have no choice. If Azula doesn't die, the Fire Nation will follow her to war. The other nations will all be destroyed at Sozin's Comet."

"I know that."

"But _why_? Why tell me this now, when any mercy I show her will shatter the chances of peace in this world?"

"Because it should never be easy to take a life. It should never be easy, no matter how much you hate that person, or how much they deserve to die, because as soon as murder becomes an acceptable way to face your problems, the world falls into chaos again." Ty Lee sighed, her eyes drifting away from the dying embers of the campfire. "Is that tea almost ready? I'm thirsty."


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

The space rocks carved vivid streaks of light into the night sky, like the bloody lacerations left by the claws of a badgermole. Zuko watched the flaming stones speed across the black blanket of the sky around him, leaning against one of the support struts encircling Master Piandao's balcony. Meteor showers were rare occurrences, and in the event that he died trying to bring down his father and sister, he could at least say he'd sat up to witness a meteor shower in all its splendor.

Footsteps came up behind him, heavier sounding than his master's, but quicker than Fat's slow strides. "I didn't pick you for someone who watched falling stars," Sokka's voice said, growing closer with each word.

"People say that if you make a wish on a falling star, it'll come true. I suppose if there was ever a time to rely on wishes, this would be it."

The water tribe boy walked over to the edge of the balcony and leaned against the railing, looking up at the streaks of fire as they raced across the horizon. After a moment, he said, "I would wish for Yue to become mortal again, so we could grow old together."

Zuko wasn't sure who Yue was, but he could guess at her relationship with Sokka from the way he spoke of her. That thought inevitably led to a thought about his relationship with Katara, and the most recent development between them. Sex elevated their mutual attraction to a whole new level, and he wasn't sure that, with all the turmoil in the world, this was a good thing for his future.

But, damn, he'd enjoyed it. Katara was everything anyone could want in a partner: intelligence, competence, kindness. And then the rarer characteristics: a nurturing instinct, a well-defined moral compass, and the diligence of a master waterbender. He just wasn't sure how she could fit into his life if he ever gained control over the Fire Nation.

_Maybe it doesn't have to be that way, _part of him thought. _I have other cousins. I could give up my claim and let them rule over the Fire Nation in my stead, and marry Katara. _He shook the thought away. All his cousins were distant, and except for his late cousin Lu Ten, he hadn't met any of them more than a handful of times. In the three years since his banishment, any lingering fondness they might have carried for him had surely withered away. _So I'll take her as my queen, _he thought. _She'll be the first Fire Lady from the South Pole. My people may not be happy, but it would bode well for future relations with the water tribes, and that much might even appease the Earth Kingdom. They'll be looking for a way for me to prove my sincerity._

Sokka lifted his arm to the sky and pointed in the distance. "Hey, look at that!"

Zuko refocused his attention on the meteor shower, filing away those thoughts for further speculation. As he looked up, the cause of Sokka's distress became apparent.

One massive meteorite careened through the air, close enough that the sound of the wind being sliced apart by its path was audible to anyone on the island. Zuko jumped to his feet, just in time to feel the earth shake under him as the meteorite impacted the island, beyond the perimeter of Piandao's castle. The space rock tore through layers of dirt, singeing everything in its path. It carved a deep trench in the earth, having broken the surface at a shallow angle. Even after the resistance of the soil stopped the meteorite from penetrating any deeper, the flames it had carried down with it continued to burn out of control.

Zuko ran back into the house, quickly followed by Sokka. "What are you doing?"

"If that fire reaches the village, everyone could die. I have to go out and smother the flames."

"I'm coming with."

"Sokka, there's nothing you can do." He turned toward the stairwell, feet pounding against the wooden steps as he ran down them. Another pair of footsteps followed close behind.

"I can evacuate the villagers. I've done that before."

Zuko didn't ask for the story. That struck him as the kind of action Sokka would take anyway, lacking the capacity to do something more helpful. "Then go. I'll do my best to contain the inferno."

They reached the main level. Zuko turned sharply to the right, plowing through the front door.

Even in the short burst of time he took to reach the main gate, the path of fire had expanded into exactly what he'd just called it: an inferno. Heat poured from the burning trees as, one by one, they were swallowed up. Sokka raced ahead, his longer stride propelling him toward the cluster of buildings in the distance. Despite his speed, the flames seemed to be outrunning him.

Zuko ran in a long arc, getting closer to the roaring flames with every step. The air shimmered, the heat mirage visible even through the plumes of smoke. He pressed on, a sheen of sweat forming above his brow.

Firebending wasn't just about producing heat and making fires grow from the smallest of sparks. It was also about controlling each ember, so the flames didn't rage out of control. It was about restraint. It was about precision.

Zuko got as close to the inferno as he dared, stopping only when the air against his skin reached an almost unbearable temperature. He took a firebending stance, breathing deeply. His lungs filled with a sticky mix of oxygen and smoke, and his eyes watered at the harsh taste of ashes on his tongue. He ignored these small discomforts, bringing his arms down and exhaling so the flames nearest to him shied away, leaving behind only a trail of embers. As soon as that section died away, he ran to the next length of flame and repeated the process, more smoke entering his lungs. He began to feel lightheaded.

While he struggled to slow the growing blaze around him, the outer edges of the fire spread out, burning the grass like a candle scorching the edges of a paper scroll. There was no way he'd be able to contain all of it. Sokka had been right to run straight to the village.

Another section fell under his control, as the opposite edges of the fire consumed twice as much space. He gasped in another breath, then choked on the smoke as it reacted with his lungs. His body seized up in a coughing fit, doubling over as his lungs tried to expel the ashes clawing their way down his throat. More tears sprang to his eyes, too little to dowse even a candle. Zuko brought his arms down in a sweeping motion, combing the flames back so they folded in on themselves and died.

From the corner of his eye, he saw another tree start to burn. He looked over, shocked at how close the flames were to the first pockets of civilization. He ran in that direction, his legs wobbling under him as he wheezed. Twice he fell, not because his foot got caught on something, but because, for just a second or two at a time, he fainted.

Another tree went up, then two more. He plowed through the wall of smoke, running for the finger of flame in the hopes that he could stop it from getting any closer to the village. These were his people, whether he was Fire Lord or not.

He flattened another section of flame before it could reach the branches of another tree. The creeping finger of flame continued to stretch toward the village.

More smoke crept into his lungs. He hadn't meant to breathe it in, but as his body gasped for air, more of the thick clouds flooded into his lungs. Spots began to form in his vision, amongst the vivid patches of orange.

The last shred of rational thought he had left commanded him to get as far away from the blaze as possible, civilians be damned.

A different, more insistent voice told him to do the honorable thing, to hold back the inferno as long as he could so he might save one more unnamed villager from a horrible death. _Honor. You have to restore your own honor. _

His legs gave out beneath him. This time, he couldn't stand up. His body curled up, arms wrapping tight around his chest as more smoke poured into his lungs. _Air, I need air, _he thought, then choked on a laugh. _But there is no air here. The fire has turned all the air to smoke, hasn't it? _

The next spasm of coughing left him weak. It felt like someone had jammed a sharp stick down his throat and was proceeding to scrape the sooty residue from his windpipe. This pain mingled with the thick sensation of suffocation, and the tiny black spots in his vision grew until he couldn't see his hands in front of him.

The heat was coming at him from all directions now. In a brief moment of clarity, he realized that the relentless fire had encircled him, cutting off his escape even as the advancing army of flames plowed through the narrow fence containing some poor farmer's livestock.

_It will be cool closer to the ground, _he thought. In all his training as a firebender, he had come to instinctively understand the will of the flames: they loved to climb, but refused to run downhill if there was another path for them to take. Fire lived to scale moss-laden trees and crumple the dry leaves dotting the end of every branch. Fire reached for the sky, as if it could somehow ascend into the heavens above if it just stretched high enough.

Zuko laid down, flat on the ground, hoping the sky-seeking flames wouldn't notice him lying there, amidst the ashes. He continued to cough up bits of blackened residue, in spite of the sharp stick stabbing deeper down his throat. All the while, he gasped like a koi fish cast out of the pond. Even clinging this close to the ground, the concentration of smoke was so great that he kept fading in and out of consciousness. In the snippets of blankness between each breath, he had time only to wheeze and watch the circle of flames tighten around him, like a loop of thread being pulled tight.

Zuko closed his eyes and coughed.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five

At the edge of town, the inferno ate away at the tall grass meant for grazing animals.

Sokka stood atop a fountain in the middle of town, shouting to the herds of civilians to get to safety. He'd personally made sure the people closest to the fire had escaped their doomed cottages, but if the blaze spread too much further, anyone still trapped inside the village proper would burn. "Everybody who's not a firebender, get as close to the docks as possible," he instructed, almost shouting over the hurried shuffle of thousands of pairs of feet. Fearful faces surrounded him on every side, a few even getting close as they cut through the fountain to get to safety. Everyone could see the orange glow of the blaze as it slowly descended down the hill. Fire tended to rise up much faster than it went down, but it still swallowed up the tall grass on the decline like any fire would. At least the downward slope slowed its progress.

"I need all firebenders close to the blaze to smother it," he continued. "Try to minimize the damage as much as possible, and if you start feeling lightheaded, retreat."

For a long time, Sokka had thought he hated the citizens of the Fire Nation. He had, in the wake of all the damage that the war had done to his family, resented every member of this empire simply for existing. He realized now, as dozens of firebenders broke free from the crowd and raced uphill to stop the blaze, that they were not the monsters he had once considered them. They valued their nation, yes, and they wanted to win the war, just like the other nations did, but more than anything, they wanted their families to live their lives and their houses to remained unburned. They wanted exactly the same thing out of life as the rest of the world; they'd just followed a series of cruel, cunning leaders trying to do so.

People were still pouring out of their houses. Sokka heard a baby's howl, high-pitched and more irritated at being woken up than scared of the flames. A newborn, then. Older children knew fear, where their youngest relatives could only distinguish between contentment and discomfort. He saw some of the older children stumble and shove their way through the throng, tears raining down their cheeks.

If there had been a few less houses, and if the substance beneath their feet had been snow instead of dirt, it would've looked very much like the day the Southern Raiders had attacked their tribe.

The flames swallowed up a tool shed, much closer to the town proper than a few moments ago. Sokka watched the brave firebenders reach the edge of the flames and, all moving in the perfect synchronicity of a pack of wolfbats, flattened a massive patch of the blaze, smothering it like a giant blanket.

Most of the people had gotten out of their houses by now, and no amount of shouting by him would wake the remaining few who might still be trapped inside. Sokka jumped down from the fountain, sloshing through the running water and propelling himself over the edge. As soon as he hit the ground, he broke into a run up the mountain. If Zuko was still up there, fighting the flames alone, at their most intense . . . Sokka pushed his legs faster.

Even at a distance, the heat that radiated off the hillside was intense enough to make him wonder how the firebenders could possibly hold up right at the edge of it all. Maybe they were immune to the heat, or merely used to it after working with fire their whole lives. Either way, Sokka couldn't get nearly as close before he felt his skin start to blister. Instead, he ran parallel to the line of flame, adjusting slightly as it continued to spread.

"Zuko!" he yelled, trying to be as loud as possible so the firebender could hear him over the roaring flames. There was no response. "Zuko, where are you?"

Still nothing. Sokka ran back toward the castle. The wind had pushed the flames away from the massive building. Perhaps Zuko had realized how dire his predicament had become and tried to return there.

As Sokka approached, he caught sight of Master Piandao and his butler running out toward the flames, still in their nightclothes. "Sokka, where's Zuko?" Master Piandao asked.

_Oh no, _he thought. "I was hoping he'd come back here."

"Master Piandao, the town," said his butler, Fat. Before the sword master could respond, Sokka spoke up.

"I took care of it. Everyone else is safe, but Zuko went off to smother the fire." _Damn it. _Damn _it. He was supposed to be one of us. I should've never left him to face the flames by himself. _"I'm going to look for him."

He bolted off without another word, racing toward the flames. They were so bright. Surely he would've seen Zuko before if he'd been in the middle of it all.

Unless, of course, Zuko had already been razed to ash.

"Zuko! Zuko, you better not die on me!"

Back at the other end of the blaze, the town's firebenders were smothering the flames. Sokka didn't believe Zuko would've gone that far to the edge in his attempts to stop the inferno, and anyway, at the rate it had been spreading, the edge of the inferno a few minutes ago had been lost somewhere in the middle of the shifting mass by now. Zuko could be anywhere.

_Or he could be a pile of ashes. _

Sokka ran until smoke inhalation caused him to double over in a coughing fit, and the heat made him shy away from the blaze. "Zuko, damn it, _answer _me!"

Still nothing from the roaring mass of flames. Sokka breathed heavily, feeling the cloying smoke run down his windpipe. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered, running again. He could see a few patches of grass that had already been charred beyond repair. If he followed those and tried to keep away from the worst of the blaze, he might be okay.

Sokka ran into the inferno.

Zuko

In the moments of unconsciousness, Zuko dreamed.

His dreams were like many dreams he'd had in his life. Faces, names, little nonsensical events, all winding together like thousands of colored threads in a tapestry. He saw the blue and orange threads of fire wind around him, natural opposites, yet born of the same element. He saw Avatar Roku, flying on his dragon, but moving through the sky as if they were a series of paintings, instead of real people. He saw snippets of his mother, ever present in his dreams, almost as if she was watching him still, though she was very likely dead.

Pain flared in his fingertips, enough to shock him into awareness. He withdrew his hand, dragging it across the charred grass as if it were a slab of metal attached to his arm. The flames had crawled quite close to him, mere inches away from him at any point. He exhaled, pushing the flames back with his mind more than any firebending movement. They retreated briefly, then started crawling back.

Zuko closed his eyes again, and dreamed.

He saw _her _face. He saw the gentle curve of her rounded cheeks, and the healthy, dark tone of her skin, a color that inspired images of small, furry animals, and exotic chocolates. On the lower half of her face, a symmetrical smile grew from a pair of succulent lips.

A new pain touched his toes. His shoes dulled the heat, but he could feel his toes starting to burn even through the dyed leather. Without opening his eyes, he withdrew that foot. The pain eased enough for him to go back to the thought of _her _face.

For a time, he imagined the sound of her voice, whispering his name, and how her lips would feel as they brushed against his ear. His fingers tightened a little in desire. The mere thought of having her say his name again . . .

He could feel the fire all around him now. When he opened his eyes and moved to push it away, he got no response. The flames started eating away at the edge of his shirt, catching on the fabric better than they had with the grass. The spot of heat quickly became intolerable, and he rolled away from it, onto another patch of fire. Now the blaze had him on both sides. Panic began to seep through him, adrenaline pulsing through his veins.

His body was limp from so much smoke inhalation, and even as the flames gnawed at his skin, he kept phasing between awareness and dream.

_Her_ face. _Her _eyes.

The fire, the fire, the fire.

Eyes like lapis lazuli, glittering in the sun.

All over, it was all over him now, like a carpet of flame attached to his body.

_Her _face again, but different this time. Definitely her eyes. The same exact shade of blue, a shade rare to see outside of a jewelry shop, a shade the sky didn't turn, no matter what time of day it way.

Burning, burning all over . . . Comparatively cool tears rolling down his face . . .

The face was wrong, he realized. There wasn't so much of the youthful roundness in her features, and the shape of her eyes was off, just a bit. Yet some faraway part of him still recognized the face.

He felt sudden relief from the worst of the heat, and lapsed back into unconsciousness.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

The darkness pressed down on him like a wool blanket, and even when he opened his eyes, several minutes passed before he could make out the blurry shapes above him. He saw the hazy corner of a shelf, the outline of the figurines on top, then the ill-defined lines of the curtains hanging over the window.

Zuko blinked a few times, until his vision cleared. His head ached, and when he lifted a hand to massage his temples, he almost flinched away at the heat radiating off his skin. The last time he'd had a fever, Ba Sing Se had still belonged to the Earth Kingdom.

Overheating, he threw off the layer of blankets they'd dumped on top of him and tried to sit up. All the blood in his head rushed downward, and he almost fell back onto the mattress. Several minutes passed before he dared to stand, and by that point, his eyes had adjusted to the dark room.

The decorations would've given the owner away even if he hadn't recognized the room from the summer he'd spent here as a guest. Dozens of clay, metal, and paper lotuses adorned the shelves, and the wallpaper print resembled the White Lotus tile from the Pai Sho games his uncle played. Apparently, lotuses were the one thing Piandao and Uncle had in common.

_Maybe it means something, _Zuko thought. He dismissed the idea as a fever-dream a moment later. So what if they had matching tastes? They'd only ever met each other the day his Uncle had brought him here to start sword training.

He staggered toward the door, clutching his head until he realized it was his arm that was covered in bandages. _When did that happen? Oh, the fire. _He blinked, leaning against the doorframe. The only logical reason for the bandages was a burn, but his arm didn't hurt any more than the rest of his body. _Healed already? _he wondered, wincing at the light pouring in through the door.

No one seemed to be wandering through the hallway. Zuko turned and started down the corridor, heading toward the main part of the house in the hopes that he'd see someone. Somehow, it seemed important for him to know the ultimate fate of the village. _My people. One day, they'll be my people._

No one waited for him in the sitting room, or the study, or the entryway. He continued on, restless. Darkness had fallen outside, but it could be shortly after sunset, or early in the morning, and he'd have no way to tell. At least nothing appeared to be on fire.

He trudged through a few more rooms, then dragged himself up a flight of stairs. _I should be able to see them from the balcony if they're out front, _he reasoned as he reached the top.

Sokka seemed to be sparring with his shadow in the castle's arena. In his hand was one of the wooden practice swords Master Piandao had crafted.

Zuko watched the water tribe boy work for several minutes, waiting for the cool breeze to clear his head, then sighed and headed back downstairs and out the double doors. "How long have you been practicing?" he asked as Sokka darted toward his imaginary nemesis and stabbed somewhere in the invisible man's torso.

The warrior jumped guiltily, then turned toward him. "A couple hours. I couldn't sleep, so . . ."

"Your stance was off."

"Huh?"

"Your fighting stance. It wasn't wide enough. Anyone could've knocked you over, if they'd wanted to."

Sokka glanced down at his feet and widened his stance.

"Bend your front knee more. Good. Now strike." Zuko watched the boy shift forward, thrusting the fake sword toward his imaginary opponent. "You can feel how much more power you'd have in a proper strike like that. Strength doesn't matter so much in a fight if you have good technique."

"Yeah . . ." He relaxed and looked down at the wooden blade. "Why are _you _up at this hour?"

"I need to know if the village survived the fire."

"Oh. Yeah, everyone's fine. You were actually in more danger than any of them. I ran back as soon as I was satisfied everyone would be safe. I figured you would've realized how suicidal it was to fight the fire by yourself, so I checked in with Master Piandao first. He said you hadn't come back."

"No. I couldn't breathe through all the smoke. I passed out."

Sokka nodded. "That was what I figured. So I ran back toward the fire, hoping I'd be able to find you before you turned all crispy and stuff. I should've known right away that you'd never abandon your position."

"Why would you think that?" Zuko asked, curious as to what exactly he'd done to give Sokka that impression.

"If there's one fatal flaw you have, it's that you value your honor too much. You don't have it in you to risk your honor even to save your own life."

He frowned. "I guess that's fair."

"So I knew you'd still be somewhere in the fire. I calculated about where that would be, based on your last known position. There was fire had circled all around you, but you were untouched for the most part. That might have been luck, or you were subconsciously bending the fire away. Either way, I picked you up and carried you back to the castle before you started on fire. The butler applied some salve to the burns on your arm and your toes, and gave you some pain medication. He didn't know how well you'd recover from the smoke inhalation, though. The best he could do for that was to make sure you got enough rest.

"Master Piandao kept me busy all day today, rearranging his rock garden and sparring with Fat, so I didn't get a chance to check on you. How do you feel?"

"I'm fine." He walked over to the edge of the arena and picked one of the practice swords out of the bin.

"What are you doing?"

"If you're going to spend your nights practicing instead of sleeping, you should at least have some new techniques to show for it." He swung the sword through the air, testing its weight in his hand. The balance was familiar even after so many years.

"Zuko, you're still not fully recovered. Maybe—"

"You forget that I spent an entire summer here, when I was young. You won't be able to take me down if I'm at full strength."

Sokka frowned, then raised his sword. "Fine, but if you feel like you're going to pass out . . ."

"I'll warn you," he said, lifting his own blade.

The night came alive with the sound of sparring.

Katara

"We're running low on fruits and vegetables," Katara muttered, as the sky darkened around their little campsite.

"Who's going to go foraging?" Toph asked.

Ty Lee stood up. "We should all go," she suggested. "It'll be fun."

"That sounds like and excellent idea," Iroh rumbled, rising from the ground.

Toph sighed, both unwilling to let them go off without her, and annoyed that she had to go at all. "I guess I'll go."

"I have to stay and watch the fish," Katara told them, frowning to herself. Camp was already lonely enough with two people and a flying bison missing. _Three people_, she corrected herself forcefully. _Aang's gone, too._

The others started getting up and wandering off into the jungle. Katara sighed, pulling out the wolf-tooth knife she used to cut vegetables. That, at least, had been tied down to Appa's saddle when they'd taken off.

There were a couple ocean kumquats left from earlier forays. She supposed those would have to do until the others came back with more.

She was slicing through the second kumquat when the knife carved a deep gash in her thumb. She jerked her hand away, stunned by the pain. Blood ran down her hand in a stream, splattering across her fingertips as she moved it. "Ow!"

The stinging sensation seeped deeper into her hand, and she turned toward the ocean, eyebrows pinching together as she contemplated the long walk. They'd situated themselves in the middle of the island so that they wouldn't be seen by passing ships, but the distance from the water left her helpless in the event of an attack. Regardless, she had to heal her thumb somehow, so she turned toward the kumquats she'd been slicing, and moved them away from the growing puddle of blood so they could be consumed later. As her hand moved over the red splotch, she saw the liquid slide across the flat stone she'd been using as a cutting board.

For a moment, the pain in her hand yielded to the excitement of discovery. Katara waved her hand(the one that wasn't bleeding) over the puddle, watching the thick liquid travel across the rock just like real water.

_Interesting._

Another sweep over the crimson splotch, this one slower and more careful. The blood rose from the stone and gathered together in a small orb. She lifted the little globe, moving it back and forth. Now that she was focusing, she could feel the distinct differences between this fluid and regular water. As to be expected, the thicker consistency made bending blood more of a challenge. It was also considerably heavier than regular water, perhaps because of all the particles floating around in it that made it, well, blood.

She glanced down at her still-bleeding thumb, an idea forming in her mind. "Worth a try," she muttered to herself, moving the red orb toward the gash. She focused her energy through the sticky fluid, trying to make it follow the same patterns as regular water. After a moment, a faint glow emanated from the blood, and the pain in her hand started to fade.

The remaining blood dripped down her wrist. She moved it off her skin with a sweep of her other hand, then held it in the air while she examined her thumb. There seemed to be no evidence that it had ever been cut at all.

_Very interesting._


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"It's time for you to forge a sword of your own, Sokka."

The water tribe boy looked up at Master Piandao, excitement jolting through him as he saw the approval writ across the old master's face. It was the same look his dad favored him with when he'd done something to make him proud, and even on a different face, the expression meant something to him. He bowed deeply. "Thank you, Master."

"Come down to the forge with me then. Both of you."

Sokka glanced at Zuko, fully recovered from his injuries in the nine days they'd spent here so far, sparring and sharpening their minds for this day. The firebender made a face, coming as close to a real smile as Sokka had ever seen him. The two of them followed Master Piandao down the stairs and to the edge of the castle. As they passed through the rooms, Sokka felt a sort of transition in the architecture, a transition that reflected his own growth since coming here. The little lotus figurines that adorned every surface in the castle now followed the walls in two, straight lines. They were all carved of stone, and held flickering stubs of candle wax in their petals. The wallpaper and wood paneling of the rest of the castle yielded to gray stone walls that, in any other setting, might have been depressing to look at. Instead, they lent the long corridor an atmosphere of simplicity, stripping away all that was unnecessary and leaving only the bare bones of hard work and self-control as their guide. When the narrow chamber opened up into the sealed off forge at the edge of the castle, Sokka felt all the insignificant facets of his reality slip away, leaving him exposed. _This is it, _he thought.

"We have to select a metal for your new sword," Piandao said, his voice echoing in the stone room. "I've brought a few alloys out for you to examine. It's up to you to choose which alloy will go into your sword."

Sokka stepped forward, cautiously picking up the first block of metal. It felt very light in his hands, almost too light to be made into a proper weapon. He picked up another, quickly deciding that it would be abominably heavy in sword form. He started picking up each chunk of metal in turn, finding faults in each of them. _Still too heavy . . . This one seems brittle . . . There wouldn't be enough mass in a blade made of this to make it an effective weapon . . . _He lifted an introspective finger to his lips, breathing deeply.

He turned to Master Piandao. "Would it be all right if I were to go and come back with something special?" he asked.

The swords master smiled. "I would have it no other way."

Sokka smiled, then grabbed Zuko's wrist. "C'mon. I've got an idea."

"Where are we going?"

Sokka saw a metal door leading to the outside world, then pulled the firebender through it. Zuko followed, confused, but not resistant. Sokka tugged him along until he was certain the prince would follow.

"Where are we going?" Zuko repeated as they jogged.

"You'll see."

Zuko sighed, but continued after him.

They ran up the grassy slope, then across the shallow dip of the charred meadow where the meteorite had come down. New growth was beginning to take hold within the blackened patches of grass, in the form of fire lilies. Sokka had heard they only grew at a certain time of the year, and even then, only in certain places, but he had noticed some during their stay at the healer's hut, and that had been quite a while ago for the finicky flowers. _Maybe it's not the time of year, _he thought, remembering that the hut had been built on a volcanic island, like most of the Fire Nation. _Maybe they need everything else cleared away by fire to grow. Or maybe they just need volcanic soil. This island is a volcano, too, just like the rest of the Fire Nation._

Sokka slowed as they reached the black chunk of meteorite, glad it was still there. "Okay, here's what I was thinking: this rock comes from space, right? The same way Sozin's comet comes from space, and how the moon and sun are part of space. And it got me thinking, if all those things from beyond the stars affect the four elements, there must be something out there that's just as good for normal people like me."

Zuko thought about that for a moment. "Maybe."

"So if we use metal we find in this meteorite, it might make a better weapon than ordinary metal, right?"

"I guess so."

"So I need someone to help me push this back to the castle."

Silence.

"Please? I'll let you use some to make your swords."

The firebender sighed, a puff of smoke shooting out of his nostrils. "Fine."

Sokka grinned and ran around the side of the fallen meteor, to start pushing it down the hill. Zuko joined him, not offering a word of complaint after his reluctant acquiescence. It took them several minutes to get it back to the castle, even going downhill. When they got close, Master Piandao sent Fat up to help them the rest of the way down. Finally, they reached the bottom of the hill and carried the space rock inside. The sword master grinned when he saw them shove the rock into the forge.

"That," he said, smiling. "will do just fine."

_Author's Note_

_Short chapter, but I pretty much know how the story's going to end now, and it's going to be epic. On a side note, I'm thinking about doing a sequel for this story once it's done(which is rather shocking to me, since I seldom do sequels at all). That's still a long way off, though, and I have to incorporate more Zutara romance into this story before we can even think about any of that._


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Katara heard Appa's growl before she saw the flying bison swoop down above their campsite. Her head snapped up in expectation, her feet carrying her in that direction without a conscious command. "Sokka, Zuko, you guys are back!"

Sand flew up as the massive creature landed on the beach. Katara raised an arm to shield her eyes from the particles, while Ty Lee just bounded through the cloud to greet their returned allies.

Toph lifted her arms and brought the cloud of sand back to the ground, where it belonged. She'd been practicing her sandbending ever since they'd arrived on the island, trying to compensate for the way it clouded her seismic sense. When the tiny particles joined the rest of the sand, she grinned. "How'd your training go?"

Sokka hopped down from the saddle, and pulled a long, black sword from a sheath on his hip. "I got this," he announced. "It's a Jian Sword, forged from the minerals of a meteorite. I'm calling it Space Sword."

Katara rolled her eyes. Sokka seemed to think he was creative with names, and she wasn't going to burst his bubble. Instead, she walked over to Zuko, smiling faintly. "And what about you? How did forging your new swords turn out?"

He pulled what appeared to be a single, curved blade from his back then, with a movement of his fingers, split the sword down the middle so a second blade slipped free of the first. They were the same dark metal as Sokka's sword. "Master Piandao recognized me right away. He knew what I needed."

The black blade reflected a ray of sunlight, throwing the sharp edge of the blades into relief. It looked sharper than any weapon she'd ever seen.

"Sokka and I sparred with them before we left. They're lightweight, high-quality. It doesn't take much force to cut someone with these."

It took her a moment to identify the subtle change in Zuko's speech, but when she did, it made her smile. _They're friends now. Ten days, that's all it took. _The realization gave her something that had been absent from her life for too many weeks now, something that she only realized had been missing in the moment it returned to her: a sense of hope.

_We can win, _she thought._ We're ready. _

Zuko sheathed the swords, just as Sokka started talking.

"We're going out to find a ship to stow away on tomorrow. Once we're sure it's headed to the capital, we sneak onboard and hide in the first capital-bound crates we see. That way, we'll get unloaded first, so we'll have enough time to slip away."

"And then we wait in the harbor district until the Day of Black Sun, right?" Ty Lee asked.

"Right." He turned to Katara. "Has Dad tried to contact you since we left?"

She shook her head, confused. "No. Why?"

"When we left the healer's island, I told the warriors to find him and bring reinforcements for the eclipse. I was hoping they'd send some kind of confirmation about that."

Disquiet rippled through her heart.

"They probably don't want to risk having their message intercepted before it reaches us," Toph reasoned.

"Right, of course," she breathed. "I'm sure that's it."

"No point in worrying about it," Sokka decided after a moment. "We've got our mission. Whether or not they land in time for the eclipse, we still have to break into the palace and take down the Fire Lord. We'll leave for the capital tomorrow morning."

They all made noises of agreement, even Appa and Momo. All except Katara.

_No, Toph's right. They just don't want to blow our cover. She must be right. _

_She must be. _

Sokka

After everyone had dispersed to make their final preparations for tomorrow, he headed into the woods to hunt. Ty Lee tagged along.

"You don't really have to come along," he said, hoping she'd take the hint. It wasn't that he _minded _spending time around her, but the way she flirted with him was somewhat unnerving. He still had Suki to consider, and even then, the days before a major battle were not an ideal time to start a relationship. He'd learned that lesson when he'd lost Yue at the North Pole.

Ty Lee blinked, then frowned. The expression looked unnatural on her normally perky face, but it didn't diminish her inherent charm. He made himself look away.

"I just missed you, that's all. Your sister's fun to talk to and everything, but I need more interaction than that."

He sighed, letting it go. Their conversation had scared away whatever game there was to be found, so there was no point in sending her off now when it would only hurt her feelings.

"Did you have fun on your trip?" she asked.

"I did, actually. I don't know how to explain it, really, but even though I was in the Fire Nation, even though I was a guest in this huge castle, it sort of felt . . . I don't know, like I belonged there, or something. Like I would've been welcomed there, unconditionally, even if I hadn't had the connections to get in."

She considered that for a moment. "I can't think of any place that wouldn't let you in, to be honest. Your aura draws people to you. You're a natural-born leader."

He stopped, staring at his feet. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"For saying that. I've always tried to live up to the image I have of how my father led the village. It's nice to know that someone believes in me."

"The others believe in you, too."

"No they don't. I can't bend. Even now, with my Space Sword, I can't keep up with the rest of them. My younger sister . . ." He faltered a moment. "My younger sister is a waterbending master. Barely fifteen, and she's accomplished things that some adult waterbenders can only dream of. And me? I'm just some water tribe peasant playing chief with his ragtag bunch of friends."

"You're wrong."

"What?"

"You're wrong. Being a bender isn't what makes you strong. It doesn't make you better than the people who aren't." She lifted her gray eyes up to him. "Even when I was at Azula's side, even though I can see now that I was only a tool to her, I never felt like I was less than she was. I was a valuable part of the team. I could fight, take down my enemies, _just like you._ All that time, even though she was a prodigy and a princess, I felt like her equal. And you know why? Because I was."

He stared at her. _Equals? _"Ty Lee . . ."

"You're just as good as every one of them. That's a fact. So stop moping and—"

He kissed her.

For a moment, she just stood there, frozen. Then she lifted her hands to his face and leaned deep into the kiss. Their bodies twined together, fusing like molten metal under the searing heat of the kiss. The part of his mind responsible for judgment and reasoning faded to the background.

His guilt over kissing someone besides Suki faded to the background.

His grief over Yue's death faded to the background.

And he thought, in the brief moment while he still retained the ability to think, that somehow, this was right. Somehow, with everything else in chaos, with the invasion looming over his head, kissing Ty Lee fit perfectly into his life.

The kiss waned, and a tear rolled down the side of his face. He lifted a hand to wipe it away, embarrassed, only for her delicate thumb to rise up and brush it aside. "You have no idea how long I've waited for you to do that," she whispered, moving her lips to his again. This kiss swelled steadily, becoming so piercingly sweet that for a moment, all he could do was hold her to him. When this one eased up, he tilted his head forward so their foreheads were touching. Though still relatively short, Ty Lee's hair had grown out enough to tickle his skin when they touched. He breathed in her scent, then tried to make comparisons. All he could think of were trite clichés that had no business in describing her.

He tilted his chin and kissed her again.

Azula

"Why must my brother always hide out on the most insignificant island in the sea?" Azula said, glaring out across the black waters at the speck of orange on the horizon.

"Maybe he thinks the small islands will be beneath your notice," Mai suggested, rubbing a piece of cloth over her blood-crusted knife. She sighed. "These knives were meant for throwing, not cutting. They're all dull, now."

"I'll have new ones made for you when we return to the capital."

"And when will that be?"

Azula's anger flared. "It will be when I _say _it is, and no sooner. I will not return home a failure."

"Whatever."

She returned her attention to the wisp of smoke rising up from the middle of the island. The black tendrils were too small for a natural fire, and too steady to be the work of ordinary firebenders. A campfire, most likely, in a place where there was no point to camping.

_Unless of course, they don't want to be found. And why would they? They know I'm looking. Waiting._

_Hunting. _

She stood up and headed down the corridor, annoyed by their slow progress. When she strode through the metal door blocking off the wheelhouse, the captain turned toward her, moving as if to scold whatever crewmember had interrupted him. When he saw it was her, he closed his mouth and bowed instead. "Princess Azula, it's an honor to—"

She cut him off. "Full speed ahead to that island," she said, pointing out the window. "I want to get there before we're seen." _I will not fail again._


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The bolt seemed to literally come out of the blue.

Zuko shot to his feet at the sound, his body recognizing the sudden crash before he had time to really think about what it meant. Recovered since the inferno at Piandao's castle, his body was finally at full strength again. Even so, he could not run as fast as he wanted toward the source of the lightning. The sand swallowed up his feet as he ran, slowing his progress so that, by the time he reached the more solid dirt around their campsite, everything was already on fire.

"Katara!" he yelled, praying to Agni she was still alive. For several gut-wrenching seconds, he heard no response. Then, she bolted out from behind a copse of palm trees, running toward him. "We have to get off the island."

"We have to find the others first," she said, still running.

_The others. Of course. _He thought of Sokka, now his closest friend here besides Katara, and of Uncle, who'd practically raised him, even before he'd been banished. A crushing weight crashed down on him as he realized, with blue flames pouring out in their general direction, that they simply didn't have the time to look for them.

"We have to go now," he said, taking her hand and tugging her toward the beach.

"I'm not leaving them here!"

"Katara, we have to _go_. Everyone else is scattered across the island, we don't have time to look for them."

"No! I won't leave them behind!" she yelled, just as a plume of fire razed a patch undergrowth near them to ash. She flung herself away from the sapphire flames, shock crossing her face.

"We have to get to the beach, then. We might have a fighting chance there." He picked her up from the sands and half-dragged her toward the sandy crescent of the island's edge. After a few paces, she started running with him.

"I need you to watch for lightning," she said, as their feet sent clouds of sand up into the air. He let go of her hand and turned back toward the roaring flames, ready to redirect whatever bolts came their way, no matter how much pain it caused him.

Behind him, the sound of liquid sloshing around alerted him to Katara's waterbending. A great wave rose up from the sea and pushed inland, like a miniature tsunami. It raced toward the fire, stirring up sand on its way there, and knocking down whole palm trees. Wherever it touched the flames, they disappeared.

Sometimes, he forgot she was a master waterbender, that she didn't need his protection, that she was just as capable of facing Azula as he was. Sometimes, he forgot he didn't have to rely wholly on himself anymore.

_She's stronger than I am, _he thought, transfixed by her confident motions. _She's not just a master, she's gifted. _

A flash of blue drew his attention, and he moved to redirect the bolt. It didn't seem to be aimed at either of them, but up into the sky. A display of power, instead of an actual attack. _Why would Azula do that? _he wondered, tensing up. Another bolt split the sky, leaving it cracked like a bowl shattered into pieces across the floor.

Katara ran past him, cloaked in a thick layer of water. He followed, startled by her decision to leave the beach. He reached one hand out, as if to restrain her, then flinched away from the wall of blue flame that rose up between them.

"Katara, where are you going?"

She glanced back only for a moment, the blue in her eyes intensified by the sapphire flames between them. "Looking," was all she said.

In hindsight, he probably should've realized she would get her way.

Azula

She liked to consider herself unpredictable. When she was near, her enemies needed to fear not only her base talent, but also the raw cunning she used to rip cities apart, like she'd done in Ba Sing Se. While she couldn't pretend that this piddling little diversion was especially creative, she couldn't ignore the sheer success rate it carried with it.

"I've got Ty Lee," came Mai's voice, behind her. Azula actually heard the emotion behind the sentiment, a subtle intensity that came with the stress of battle. She turned back to look at the traitor.

Mai held the acrobat in her black-sleeved arms, a knife at the younger girl's throat. A deep cut marred the side of her face, a stream of blood pouring over the edge, down the side of her face. One eye had swollen shut, from a wound inflicted during the scuffle, most likely. When Azula looked at her, a single, gray eye gazed back at her, shining with tears.

"How wonderful it is to see you again, Ty Lee," she said, still grinning. "It's been a while."

The acrobat gave no reply.

Mai sighed. "I caught the other one," she said, gesturing to a curled up pile of blood-crusted clothes in the dirt. The handle of one of her knives stuck out the boy's back, right into the heart. It wasn't until he moved that Azula realized he was still alive.

"Take them both to the ship. That one will make a good hostage."

The boy, crumpled on the ground in pain, tried to crawl toward a piece of black metal in the sand. Azula's eyes flickered to the dark steel, just for a moment. _Who would forge a sword made of such ugly metal? _she wondered, as Mai carried Ty Lee back to the ship. A crewmember took her, binding her hands and legs before allowing her to be dragged away to the prison holds near the engine room. Mai returned, slinging the bleeding peasant over her shoulder and carrying him as if he were a sack of rice. Too weak to struggle, he was passed off to the crewmembers with only chained wrists.

Azula sighed to herself and headed for the ship, gritting her teeth as the sand in her boots ground against her manicured toes. Such discomforts should be beneath her.

Several footsteps later, she was finding it difficult to traverse the beach. She looked down, surprised to see the sand swallowing her feet up like river mud. She pulled one foot out of the sand, only to have the other sink in further. Within seconds, she was knee-deep in sand. "Mai! Mai, come help me!"

The dark-haired girl looked over from the edge of the ship, only just noticing her predicament. For a moment, Mai stood there, watching her friend sink deeper into the sand.

For one awful moment, Azula thought the girl was just going to leave her there.

Mai leapt over the rail and darted across the sand, knives in hand. "Azula, behind you!"

She turned to see the waterbender who'd been approaching from behind since the sand had taken hold of her legs, and shot a bolt of lightning in that direction. As soon as her finger pointed that way, the waterbender threw herself to the side and launched a torrent of water in her direction. The rush separated into smaller sections, which then froze to ice. Azula readjusted, a wall of blue fire shooting out and melting the icy spears before they could shred her apart.

As steam covered the battlefield, the sand rose up to her waist. _It's that damn earthbender, _she thought, though the blind brat had never presented much of a threat to her before. "Come out, little earthbender!" she yelled, sapphire flames pouring out from between her knuckles.

"I'm right here," came a voice. Azula turned, throwing a wave of fire toward the waterbender to cover that side for a moment longer. She heard a squeal of pain from the waterbender.

The short earthbender stood, crusted in sand, behind Mai. The knife-throwing assassin writhed, covered in sand up to her chest. Little towers of the grainy particles clung to her arms, climbing up her shoulders and pinning her hands down so she couldn't struggle.

"Come get me, if you can!" the blind brat taunted.

_Such insolence. _She lifted her arm, fingers coiling until her outstretched hand became a fist.

"_My loyalty lies only with you," _Mai had said, that day, after she'd burned that insolent handmaid to death.

_Loyalty, _Azula thought. _Yes. Loyalty. Whatever happens, Mai was always loyal to me. Not like Ty Lee. _

"_Ty Lee was my friend, too, you know." _

_No. Ty Lee was a traitor. You were always more loyal than she was. _The fire hissed, clinging to her knuckles. Behind her, the heat of her previous blast began to fade.

The earthbender still stood, all covered in sand except a patch over her face that gave her room to breathe. Mai was almost as covered, coated all the way up to her neck now.

In one of his rare moments of affection, her father had patted her head and told her that it was important for all leaders to make the hard decisions. He'd told her there were times when sacrifices had to be made for the greater good of the nation. So, as her fist shot forward, fire pouring out from between her fingers, Azula justified the cost of this mission with the capture of a grave threat and a hostage.

In the fraction of a second before the flames engulfed Mai and the enemy holding her captive, Azula saw a flicker of emotion she'd never expected to see from the dark-haired assassin.

For the first time in the course of their friendship, Mai's expression overflowed with fear.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

For a moment, Katara could only lie there and stare. She'd known since her first encounter with Azula that the firebender was irredeemably evil, but this . . .

This was just . . .

Her hands had been burned in the blast Azula had sent toward her, but with as much water as she had at hand, she'd already repaired the damage. She only wished the same water she'd used to heal her physical wounds could wipe away the shock of seeing Mai burn. The emotionless girl's body had lit up like a torch, the flames glowing bright blue only for a moment before they took hold and started charring her pale skin. Her eyes had remained, for just a moment, wide white spheres that identified the part of her body that was her face. Katara had watched them swell, the white sclera turning almost yellowish in the moments before they'd burst, spewing liquefied tissue in the sand.

Katara had fainted then, her mind fleeing to some safe place deep inside where she wouldn't have to see such atrocities. By the time she'd resurfaced, two tiny hands were prodding at her shoulder. "Katara, wake up. We've got to get moving."

"Toph?"

The earthbender pushed her over so her eyes stared up at the black sky. A figure shifted in her peripheral view, and she turned to see the vague outline of Zuko's face above her. "The others?"

"Sokka and Ty Lee have been taken captive," he said grimly. "I found Uncle on his way back from the other side of the island, but by then, the fight was over. Appa and Momo are panicked, but okay."

She closed her eyes. "Why would she take Sokka?"

"I don't know. Spite, I'd guess."

Iroh spoke up. "It is possible that she intends to bring him back to the Fire Nation as a hostage, to bargain with. The Fire Nation does not consider the water tribes to be much of a threat, but I am sure they would be happy to force them into submission nonetheless."

"We have to find them."

No one spoke for a moment, and she felt her heart quicken. She sat up, the blood rushing out of her head. "We have to start looking for them. They could still be alive, on Azula's ship. We need to get them back before . . ."

"Katara . . ."

She looked up at Zuko, and felt something go cold inside her. "No. No, you can't mean it. We can't just leave them."

"The eclipse is only a few days away. We need to get into the Capital City if we want a shot at ending the war before Sozin's Comet."

"He's right, Katara," Toph said. The words rang hollow in her ears, like the phantom chime of bells. She stood up and turned to Iroh, hoping he would take her side, even if the others were sent on going. The resignation in his face said it all.

"You . . .You can't all be serious! We need them. We need everyone we can possibly get for the invasion."

Another silence stretched out among them, chilling her to the bone.

Very quietly, Zuko said, "No."

Katara lost her temper and sprang, throwing him to the ground with the force of her tackle. "You don't understand!" she yelled as they slammed into the sand. "You hate your sister, you have every reason to want her gone. But Sokka is my brother, and he's a damned good one, and I am _not _going to just let him die on your sister's ship for the sake of his invasion plan."

Zuko made no move to push her away. Instead, he said, "I know you're suffering, and I know it's not the first time you've lost someone because of the war. I'm not asking you to forgo any plans to rescue him after we've defeated the Fire Lord, I'm just asking you to have a little patience. Besides, Azula's not stupid enough to let him die. He's the son of a water tribe chief. That'll be enough for him to make a decent hostage."

The words echoed hollowly in her ears, and she almost lost hold of consciousness again. She stood up, backing away from the prince. _Traitor, _she thought, fingers curling tight so her nails pressed into her palms. _I should've known he would leave everyone else behind. All he wants from us is a chance at royalty._

Under those thoughts was the most painful revelation of all, repeating over and over in her mind: _He was just using us to win the throne. Using me. Lying to me._

Confusion passed across his face as he processed the fury in her expression. Slowly, he sat up. "Katara?"

_Traitor. He's just been using you._

_But you need his help to end the war,_ another part of her argued.

_All he wanted was the throne._

_That still lines up with your goal._

Katara closed her eyes. "We're going after him as soon as the eclipse is over, win or lose."

Zuko sighed in relief.

"We must be moving then," Iroh said. "At least if we want to find a box big enough for me to fit in."

"We got everything packed while you were out," Toph added. "We can go now."

There was a murmur of agreement among them. Katara stayed silent, then stalked over to Appa. She took the reins, since she was the only remaining member of the original team. A thought occurred to her as she settled into the saddle. "Where are we going to put Appa while we're being shipped off to the Fire Nation?"

Silence descended over the group.

"I guess we'll have to let him go until we can track him down later," Toph said.

"We can't leave Appa. How are we supposed to get out of the Fire Nation before we get killed?"

"We can't very well take him with us, can we, Sugar Queen?"

"After what happened in the Si Wong Desert, we can't afford to let Appa just run free. Do you have any idea how much a flying bison pelt would fetch on the Black Market? People would kill for that kind of gold!"

"Well, why don't you think of a better idea?" Toph said.

"Sorry, but our idea guy kind of got captured while I was unconscious," she snarled, shooting a glare in Zuko's general direction. "_Maybe_ we should go find him."

The firebender sighed, forehead sinking into his hands. "Just fly. I'll think of something."

"You'd better. Appa, yip, yip."

They took off and angled west toward the nearest port. Her hands wrapped so tight around the reins that her knuckles turned white.

The hours passed in silence, perhaps in response to the cold fury rolling off her back. Once in a great while, someone would offer up a solution to their bison problem, only to have holes drilled through their idea by the others. Katara ignored these little snippets of conversation, focusing on where they were going. Aang had done most of the flying in their travels together, and Sokka had picked up a shift once in a while, obsessed with his maps and eager to lead the way to their destinations when he was able. She had little skill with maps, except for what she'd gleaned from Sokka's explanations, but she knew enough to find the small harbor nestled on the edge of a farming village near the capital.

They flew wide around the island, avoiding any observant citizens, and landed on an unpopulated section of beach. "Well, do we have any ideas?" she asked, looking at Zuko.

"We could see if we could fly right into the city," he said, no real conviction behind the suggestion. Momo chattered in the silence.

"What are you looking at me for?" Zuko demanded, lifting his arms in a helpless gesture. "It's Sokka's plan, I don't know what I'm doing."

"Sokka's plan. Gee, wouldn't it be convenient if we had Sokka around right now?"

His palm rose up to hit his forehead with more force than usual. He groaned.

"There's nothing we can do about it," Toph said. "We have to leave Appa behind. And Momo, too."

"Why Momo?"

"How many flying lemurs do you see wandering around the Fire Nation?"

"None, but no one's noticed him yet."

"We're trying to be inconspicuous. If we get caught in the Capital before the eclipse, we'll be executed."

"If Appa gets skinned for fur, we won't be able to get out, and we'll be executed anyway."

"Are you standing in for Aang now that he's not here to take care of his pets?" Zuko demanded.

Katara slapped him. The sound her palm made against his face seemed to echo against the obsidian cliffs, and after the impact, her hand tingled like she'd fallen asleep on top of it. The defined shape of the rocks jutting out of the cliff blurred, and a spot of pain formed in her throat.

Half a second later, she was running across the island, lifting the back of her hand to her eyes to wipe away the budding tears. _He doesn't care about anyone here, at all, _she thought. _Not Appa or Momo. Not my brother. Not me._

_Not me. _

"Katara, where are you going?" a voice called behind her. Her legs pushed her faster, until her blurry vision fell across a dip in the base of the cliff. She staggered over, only realizing how deep the dent went when she stepped inside. Her feet carried her well past the entrance, moving in until the sunlight faded from the mouth of the cave, through the twisting labyrinth, and then slowing so she wouldn't trip and crack her skull open on a rock.

_Not me. He doesn't care about me at all. He doesn't care. He doesn't care._

She knelt down in a cluster of rocks, and started sobbing.

_Author's Note_

_Thanks for sticking with me this far. I wrote this chapter pretty much on the fly when I realized how much of a stir a ten-ton flying bison would cause in the Fire Nation Capital, but it opened up a pretty interesting subplot, I think. Anyway, I've got a new poll up on my profile regarding your opinion on whether or not I should make a sequel to this story, so if you have time, please vote on that, or add your opinion in a review. Your answers will determine several major plot points from this point out, so be sure to make yourselves heard. More violence, romance, and adventure coming up, so please stay tuned._


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter Forty-One

All the gold in the world couldn't have stopped him from following her into the cave. Even the possibility of a crown on his head and a throne to sit on could not have kept him from her, if it had somehow come to a choice between the two. _She _was hurt, and _he _had been the one to hurt her.

His cheek still stung from the slap she'd given him, but that didn't matter.

_She _was hurt.

In Ba Sing Se, Uncle had set him up on a date with an Earth Kingdom girl. He remembered the quick touch of that girl's lips under the black sky, remembered pulling away, remembered wondering, later, why he'd done that, when the feeling had been relatively pleasant.

Now he understood.

That girl had been nice enough, even an amusing person to be around, but he had not loved her. He had not loved Katara, either, until very recently, and he hadn't labeled that feeling as anything more than base attraction and companionship until he passed through the mouth of the cave. He had not even thought that the gooey emotion poets wrote about and singers bellowed out in recital halls could be as powerful and all-consuming as their words claimed.

So as he ran through the twisting cave carved in the side of the cliff, he was surprised to feel the swelling in his chest, the pain spiraling through him as he contemplated the suffering Katara must be enduring. In that moment, he didn't care whether or not the invasion plan succeeded, or whether the war ended before the comet. All that mattered was that _she _was in pain, and _she _needed him.

The cave was growing too dark for him to easily see as he moved through it. He paused, fingers flexing as a long tongue of flame rose from his open palm. The dancing flame threw the rocky, uneven walls into relief, allowing him to move further down the tunnels without injuring himself. As he wound further down the passages, he began to wonder if the path had diverged somewhere, and he had somehow lost her trail. Surely, she would not go so far. Then he heard the quiet sobs echoing across the solid walls.

"Katara? Katara, where are you?" The narrow passages distorted the sobbing so he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He helplessly whipped around the bend, not slowing until he came across her curled up figure, crouched tight amidst the jutting rocks of the wall. She lifted her head at the sound of his footsteps, and he saw the twin trails of tears glistening on her cheeks.

"Get lost," she told him, dragging the back of her hand across her face to wipe away the tears. He knelt down beside her, holding the flame away from his body so he could still see, but so the heat didn't bother her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, the words feeling strange on his tongue. He was a prince, and princes didn't apologize, not in the Fire Nation, but . . .

"Leave me alone."

"Katara, please, just hear me out."

She shot to her feet so quickly he thought she was going to hit her head on the stone ceiling. "Hear you out? I already heard you. You're leaving Sokka with your sister to die, and now you want to leave Appa behind, and you want me to _hear you out_?"

"I'm only trying to do what will be most likely to keep us alive in the end. I don't want to lose anyone else. I hate the fact that we had to leave Sokka and Ty Lee behind, but we don't have any other options. There are people dying in this war every day, Katara, you know that better than anyone. I'm only doing what I think is best for the world, what's best for you."

"You don't get to decide what's best for me. I have my own life, and I don't need you running it like you want to run the Fire Nation."

"I don't want to run your life, I just . . . I can't stand the thought of letting this war go on any longer than it has to. The sooner it's over, the less likely it is that you get killed."

"Oh save it. All you want is your stupid crown. Well, when the war is over, you can have it."

"The crown?" he echoed, feeling hollow. "You thought I did all this for the crown?"

"Well, I don't see why else you'd do it. Go ahead. I don't care."

"Katara . . ." In the darkness, he lifted a hand to her cheek, almost afraid to touch her. His eyes were just barely adjusting to the darkness, but she'd had almost a minute head start to get used to the inky black cave, so when she saw his hand draw close, she stood and moved out of the way.

"Didn't you hear me? I don't care. Not about you, or your crown, or anything else."

"But I care about _you_."

He heard the sharp intake of breath from where she stood, followed by silence.

"I care," he whispered, knowing his voice would carry in the small space. "Not about the throne, not about deposing my father. I care about you. Katara, I _love _you. I love you in a way I don't even understand, and I'm starting to think things that don't make sense because of it. I'm starting to think I'd give up everything we've worked for if it would somehow keep you out of danger. I think about what would happen if you got killed in battle, and how nothing would ever be right again. I think about . . ." He trailed off, fighting the tears threatening at the edges of his eyes.

"Think about what?" she asked, her voice neutral.

His eyes had finally adjusted; he could see her face.

"I think about what it would be like . . . if you were my Fire Lady."

Her sapphire eyes opened wide, and a delicate hand flew to her heart. "If I was . . . your . . ."

Something gave way inside him, like a dam bursting under the unstoppable force of a river, and suddenly, he was on his feet, holding her hands. "You would like it there. At the royal palace, I mean. There's a pond with turtle ducks, right in the courtyard, and plenty of space inside the palace if you want to practice your waterbending. The whole island is surrounded by the sea, if you'd like that more. And the _people _will love you, I know they will. You'll be a diplomat for the water tribes, of course, but I'm sure the Earth Kingdom would be satisfied with the arrangement, even if . . ."

"Are you asking me to marry you?" she asked, cutting right to heart of it.

"Yes, Katara. I am asking you, even if we lose this war, even if we have to change our names and live as fugitives, to marry me."

The waterbender stood there just a moment, then rocked forward on her feet and threw herself into his arms, squealing with joy. He angled his head so he could kiss her soft lips, holding her tight to his body as he moved. She met the kiss eagerly, almost breaking it when she laughed. "That's the first time you've started the kiss," she whispered against his lips. He kissed her again, and she said nothing more.


	42. Chapter 42

_Author's Note:_

_ No, I didn't drop off the face of the earth. Yes, I will finish the story soon. With the poll results I've received so far, I'm inclined to write a sequel, so I'll be adjusting the next few chapters accordingly._

Chapter Forty-Two

The island rose slowly above the horizon, the outlines of the buildings showing before the edge of the caldera. Azula watched the front of the ship split the choppy waters below, silent.

The deck was deserted except for a few stubborn sea birds. Drops of rain collided with the wooden deck, raging for intermittent periods, then settling into the more peaceful hiss of light rainfall. The water soaked her hair and clothes, leaving her freezing in the summer air. Still, she stood there, watching their vessel approach the island. The capital was so close now, it felt like a dream. They'd been sailing for a full three days and nights now, half their voyage battling the seasonal storms. The bruised sky might have seemed like an ill omen to the sailors, superstitious servants all of them, but Azula felt a sense of rightness in the darkened horizon. To her, it was like the ashes of her shortcomings had risen up to the sky to be purged from the earth once and for all. Today, she returned, honor in tact, prisoners in hand, ready to accept the praise her father would undoubtedly shower her with.

The storm worsened a bit, and the chill she'd been holding at bay sank deeper into her bones. Not wanting to tremble and appear weak in front of her crew, she crossed the metal deck and went inside. Her senior handmaid, Tazia, waited within. "Bring a change of clothes to my chambers, and tell the chef to bring me a serving of komodo chicken. I want to be presentable for my return."

"Yes, Princess." The woman bowed deeply, then went to her task, flitting down the hallway like a child. Azula walked down the corridor, passing her bedchamber in favor of the stairwell. She walked downstairs, carrying herself with a quiet dignity born only in nobles, then took a right into the twisting maze of the brig. The guards stepped aside for her, as always, and she continued down to the cell farthest from the entrance. Without bothering to announce herself, she slid open the metal slot and peered into Ty Lee's cell.

Prison life ill-suited the previously perky acrobat. The side of her face was still somewhat swollen from the battle at the island, and with her hair shortened, the girl could do nothing to cover up the bruise. Brownish crust clung to her clothes, only recognizable as dried blood. Yet even so, when the girl looked up, there were still remnants of beauty in her face, still defiance in her direct, gray eyes. Her lips turned down in a small frown, but though the expression looked out of place on her, it didn't diminish her natural beauty. Azula forced her own lips into a grin, the same grin she used when talking down to all her prisoners. "Still lovely as ever, I see."

Ty Lee gave no response, so she went on.

"I thought you ought to know: we'll be reaching the capital soon. You'll be taken off to someplace secure, where you'll await your execution."

"What happened to Mai?"

Azula was not easily shaken, but the question threw her for a moment. "Why would you ask that?"

"Mai hasn't come down to visit me. Was she hurt in the fight?"

"Why would I reveal such sensitive information to a prisoner?" Azula demanded.

Ty Lee stared at her for a long moment, through the narrow slot. "You killed her, didn't you? The fight went sour, and you killed her trying to get at someone else."

Azula opened her mouth to speak, only to have the traitor sweep on.

"I always saw the cracks in your mask, Azula. I always knew you were breaking inside, but this? Imprisoning one friend and killing the other? Have you fallen so far?"

"I'm not the one who's fallen! You're the traitor, you deserve everything you get."

"And what did Mai do? Did she betray you, too, or did you kill her because it was convenient?"

"Shut up! Shut up, or I'll have you thrown overboard."

"I'd like that. I bet I could swim all the way to the capital. The city's massive; you'd never be able to find me."

"You lie," she hissed.

"You can say that. Say it as much as you want, but know this: if you say it, you'll be the liar, not me."

Fury twisted through her, like a dragon in flight. She slammed the heel of her hand against the door. "I'm glad we're almost there. I couldn't spend another day on this boat knowing how you've defiled everything we ever stood for. I would have let you live. I would have let you run away, if you hadn't bent your knee to the enemy."

"I bent my knee for no one. I swore fealty to no one. Not to them, and not to you. I owe you nothing."

"You owe me Mai!" she screamed, her throat protesting at the harsh sting of the words. Her voice projected itself very well, and she only had to raise it the barest amount to be heard across a battlefield. She'd never felt much of a need to scream, until now. "You owe me her life! I would've never had to do it if you had stayed by my side where you belonged! But no, you had to drag me all the way out to some piddling little island so I could regain my honor. If you hadn't abandoned me, Mai would still be alive."

"If you had chosen not to raise your hand against her, she would still be alive. That was your choice."

"I will not stand here and be accused of such base disregard for Mai's life! Not by a traitor. Not by you."

"Then don't stand there," Ty Lee suggested simply. The dragon twisting around inside Azula reared up, flailing wildly. Her fist shot forward, flames spouting from between her fingers and rising up to cover the top half of the door. The steel turned a vibrant red after just a few seconds, and through the slot, Azula saw beads of sweat start to form on Ty Lee's face. Her expression remained the same as it had been through the entire conversation: thoughtful, distant.

It infuriated her.

"I'll throw a feast for your execution!" she yelled. "I'll have a party, and I'll invite everyone I've ever met, and I will _watch you burn_. Then, when you scream for the last time, I'll raise my glass and make a toast in Mai's honor." She kicked the crimson door as hard as she could, hard enough to dent the softened metal. Without another word, without even looking at the traitor again, she stalked past the prison guards and into the sealed off stairwell. When her feet hit the first stair, she broke into a run. By the time she reached her bedchamber, she was breathing hard. She pushed her way through the metal door, slamming it behind her, and staggered over to her bed, collapsing on the thick comforter as soon as she reached the edge.

_I will watch you burn, _she thought, pressing her face into the folds of fabric, fingers tightening with control. After a minute, she lifted her head from the comforter and stood up.

Tazia had left dry clothes on the edge of the bed, just as she'd instructed. She stripped off the dripping outfit she'd worn on deck and put on the new outfit, then wrung out her hair over the sink in her bathroom. She toweled off the rest of her hair, warming the towel so it soaked up the liquid faster.

A knock on her door disrupted her grooming rituals. "Princess, your komodo chicken is here," her handmaid announced.

"Leave it at the door."

She heard the metal tray touch the metal floor in front of her metal door. _So much metal. If I ever have to travel in this abominable ship again, I'll have the builders put down carpet. _She dragged a brush through her hair, ripping the black strands out by the roots in her haste. Her amber eyes drifted down to the tangle of black, eyebrows slanting downward.

"What a shame. Your hair was even prettier than mine."

She whirled at the voice, then recoiled when she saw the face that went with it. Mai watched her from the mirror, obscuring her image as she ran a single finger down the silken black strands of her hair. "Mai. How?"

The girl just shrugged. "Y'know, the usual way."

Azula lifted a hand to the silvery surface, too stunned to speak.

"You should really take better care of yourself," Mai said. "You'll catch your death out in that rain."

"I . . ."

"I've got to go."

"But you just got here," she protested. Mai couldn't leave her here, not like this. "We have so much to talk about."

"Apparently not, since you killed me."

The words hit her like a slap in the face. "I didn't mean to . . . I only did it for honor."

"Where is the honor in killing your best friends? Me, Ty Lee . . . You don't care about us, so you destroyed us. But in the end, you'll only destroy yourself." The dark-haired girl turned away and took a step away from her.

Azula watched the mirror reflect her face again, and swung her hairbrush around to smash it. _You're losing it, _she thought. _Don't lose it now, you're so close._ She closed her eyes for a moment, clutching her hairbrush. Someone else knocked on the door. "What?" she demanded, almost snapping the brush in half.

"We're going to make landfall in a few minutes," one of the shipmates said through the door. "The captain wished to notify you, in case you wanted to be out on deck. The storm's abated."

"I'll be up in a minute," she said, lifting the brush to her hair again. The sleek, black strands were still damp and dripping in some places, but she raked the comb through them as best she could in the time she had. It still took her a couple minutes to be presentable, not counting the time she took to force a plate of komodo chicken down her throat.

By the time she reached the deck, the sun had set.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter Forty-Three

"They're coming out," Toph said, removing her hand from the jutting rocks of the stone cliff.

Iroh sighed in relief. It had surprised him when his nephew had gone running after the waterbender with such haste, but it had been a pleasant surprise. Zuko had matured more in the past few months than he had in the first three years of his banishment, and to see him abandoning practicality to comfort a friend filled his old heart with pride.

The pair emerged. The flesh around the waterbender's eyes was swollen and slick, but her smile overflowed with joy. Iroh's eyes flashed over to his nephew, then froze on his face. The young prince wore an expression Iroh had seldom seen in the past few years, an expression that filled him with almost as much confusion as it did hope.

Prince Zuko was smiling.

"I thought of an idea to get Appa into the city," the young firebender announced.

_Is that the reason for his sudden happiness? _Iroh wondered, his eyes flitting back to the waterbender. _Or is it something more than that?_

"Well, Sparky, what did you come up with?"

"There are plenty of ships ferrying livestock to the capital. We could sneak Appa and Momo into one of the ostrich-horse trailers and smuggle them into the city. We'll still have to be careful, but there's some unpopulated land outside the caldera that Appa can use for grazing."

Toph threw an affectionate punch to Zuko's arm. "Nice plan, Sparky."

"I think I saw some ships carrying ostrich-horses when we flew over the bay," Katara added brightly. "But how will we get Appa from here to the ship?"

This seemed to stump Zuko for a moment. Iroh decided it might be a good time to speak. "One does not drag a cage of sparrowkeets through the river. They row toward the shore and lift the cage onto the boat."

"It should be easy enough to commandeer a ship. I've seen a lot of ships left unattended at the docks since I was banished."

Iroh nodded, concealing his surprise. His nephew seldom mentioned the banishment so openly, even to him. No one else in the group seemed to notice the shift.

"It'll be least conspicuous for me to go into port," Katara said after a moment. "And I've been on boats since the day I was born, so I don't think getting it here will be too much of a problem. Toph, I need you to come with me and help me test boats for stowaways and crewmembers."

"You got it, Sugar Queen."

Katara turned to Zuko. "Keep Appa safe while we're out. This might take a while."

Zuko nodded, serious again. The girls started for the port, walking purposefully, but not so quickly they were likely to be noticed.

Iroh waited until they were well out of earshot before turning to his nephew. "Would you like some tea before we get going?"

"Sure," the young prince said absently, taking the bags from the flying bison's saddle. Without being asked, he plucked the small basket of herbs from their bags and handed it over, along with the kettle and cups. Iroh set to work boiling water for tea. Several minutes passed in silence as it warmed.

When the tea was done, he poured two cups and handed one to his nephew. "You seem fond of our companions," Iroh said, starting the conversation off light.

"Yes. They're very hospitable."

"It seems you've managed to make friends here. Do you think you'll be able to stay in touch with them after the war is over?"

Worry flickered across the boy's face. "I'll have other duties to attend to, but yes, I do intend to keep contact with them. They'll be good diplomats for the other nations."

He heard the omission in his nephew's response, and sipped at his tea. The sweet undertones fell across his tongue like wisps of caramel. "Prince Zuko," he said quietly. "A great leader must value each and every one of his subjects."

"I know."

"And a man much value each and every one of his relationships."

Confusion crept into the young prince's expression. "Yes . . ."

"I am not suggesting that you don't make use of them as diplomats, but perhaps your priorities are not in the right order. Royalty is something you are born into, but friendship is something you cultivate with your own hands. I just worry that you may lose hold of what's important in the chaos of ruling a nation."

His nephew contemplated that for a moment, sipping his tea absently. After a few seconds, his features softened a bit. "Uncle, can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything."

"You said friendship is something you have to cultivate with your own hands, but . . ."

"Go on."

Zuko's face reddened. "What if . . . I wanted something more than just friendship? Would that be the same situation, or would it be even more important, or . . . would I be unable to do my duty because of it?"

Iroh's lips pulled up into a smile. "If a relationship is precious to you, you should do everything you can to make it work."

Zuko thought about this, then nodded. "Thank you, Uncle. That helps a lot."

Iroh lifted the tea kettle and poured more tea into Zuko's cup. "Any time, Nephew."

Azula

She walked into the throne room, head held high, shoulders squared as if for battle. _I didn't fail, Father, _she thought._ I did everything I had to do to honor our family._

Ozai waited in his chair, a stoic and formidable figure, capable of intimidating even the most fearless of men. Azula took pride in the fact that she, as a treasured member of the royal family and next in line for the throne, wasn't intimidated by the divine rule. She bowed as she entered, customary even within the family. After Zuko's slip up three years ago, she was always careful to accord her father the respect he commanded.

"Azula, I see you have returned."

"Yes, Father."

The man stood up and walked across the platform, moving to the fireproof stairs and descending gracefully to her level. Azula waited until he commanded her to rise, then stood without looking at him, keeping her posture perfect, like a soldier in line.

_Everything must be perfect. I will not fail._

"The traitor is in your custody?" Ozai confirmed.

"Yes."

"And your brother?"

"He wasn't with them," she lied, not a muscle out of place. The pressure of being scrutinized by the reigning Fire Lord would've caused most liars to slip up, but not her.

"I see. How . . . unfortunate."

She remained silent. An inexperienced liar would've swept on, adding details as if that would convince the listener they were telling the truth, when it only made their statements more suspect.

Azula was not inexperienced by any means.

"I heard there were casualties."

"Just one." She maintained her composure, controlling every muscle in her face so it remained still, but not tense.

Ozai nodded. "An acceptable loss."

_An acceptable loss . . . _The words echoed in her mind, colder than polar ice. Of course, she'd thought the same thing, when the fire had broken free of her hands. Honor was a tricky thing to maintain, and in battle, the choices that seemed most honorable were often marred with tragedy. "Yes. A necessary loss, but I would like to organize a proper funeral for her, in any case."

"We've no time for such ceremonies," her father said. For the first time since her arrival, Azula flinched.

"Mai was a longtime associate of mine. I would like to honor her life."

"Leave the ceremonies to the funeral directors. We have other celebrations planned. Your coronation, for one. I was thinking perhaps the day before the comet. That will give you enough time to prepare yourself, while still adding support to your rule. Your reign will be a decisive one."

She had heard nothing after the word "coronation." Very quietly, she said, "You mean to make me Fire Lord so soon?"

"I would have nothing less from you. You were a brilliant firebender from an early age. You will be just as capable a ruler."

"Truly? You mean that, truly?" The corners of her lips turned up in a smile.

"I have already settled on the ceremony. Do you accept?"

Azula remembered bearing great responsibilities from a young age: leading men into battle, commanding a ship of her own, tracking down the Avatar, when her brother had failed . . . But this would be her greatest responsibility yet. _He believes in me, _she thought to herself. _I knew it. He believes in me more than he ever believed in Zuko. Of course he does. _"I accept."

"Excellent. I will tell the event planners to finalize the ceremonies."

_Excellent. _She repeated the word in her mind with childlike wonder. Praise had always been showered down on her like a hurricane, but coming from her father, the affirmation that she'd made the right choice meant more to her than any speech in her honor.

Meant more to her than Mai's funeral.

Meant more to her than Ty Lee's life.

Meant more to her than the world that would soon be hers.


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter Forty-four

Commandeering a ship was exactly as easy as Zuko had told her it would be.

With Toph's seismic sense, it took only a few minutes to find a ship devoid of people. They'd climbed aboard, as though they were longtime crewmembers, and found their way to the control room.

"Will you be able to operate it?" Toph asked, after they'd arrived.

"I think so. These navigational tools are new, but I don't really _need _them. The rest of it is pretty much the same as a water tribe vessel."

Toph took a spot in the nearest chair, lifting one foot from the ground to pick the mud out of her toes. She supposed she could've used her earthbending to get it out, but that would've deprived her of the nice, picking sensation.

Katara handled the boat well, though it was a much larger vessel than she was used to. From what Toph knew of the Fire Nation, though, this wasn't a military boat. "Shouldn't we have found a smaller boat?" she asked

"This one is big enough to conceal Appa without leaving him in a cage the whole time. We can leave it in the Capital City's port without raising too much suspicion. And besides, wouldn't you rather ride around in something big? I know you don't like the water."

Toph shrugged, then realized the waterbender probably couldn't see the gesture with her face turned away. Toph understood line of sight well enough, though it seemed very limited for how much people relied on it. "I like it better, but is it practical?"

"You said the fuel tanks were full. We're not far from the Capital. We should be okay."

Toph moved her freshly-cleaned foot back to the metal floor, then lifted the other one up, always keeping contact so she'd be able to sense any intruders. As she pulled a clod of dirt out from between her big toe and the long one next to it, the engines whirred and the boat separated from the dock. The blind earthbender felt the sudden disconnect from the world around her, and pressed a hand to the wall for a more detailed picture of the boat. In truth, it didn't matter whether the boat was big or small; as soon as it left port, the rest of her world disappeared. She closed her eyes and prayed for them to make landfall again before she got seasick.

After what seemed like an hour moving across a vast field of nothingness, Katara announced that they'd reached the stretch of beach where the others awaited them. As soon as the hull bumped the soft sand, Toph relaxed. _That sandbending practice really did help, _she thought. _I can feel Sparky and the Dragon coming across the beach. _

"Oops," Katara muttered.

"What? Are we sinking?"

"No, I don't think so . . ." The uncertainty in Katara's voice sent a thrill of fear through the earthbender. "This ship is a lot bigger than I'm used to. I wasn't expecting to hit the beach like that."

"Oh."

"I'm going down to check. We're probably not sinking, but if there's any damage, I need to look at it right away."

Toph waited in her chair, feet pressed tight against the floor, one hand against the wall. Her seismic sense varied a little bit depending on how much contact she had with the things around her, and what those things were made of. She could feel the familiar hum of the engine, but no sinister vibrations caused by water rushing in.

The other two came aboard just then, climbing over the edge. A moment later, Toph felt Appa come down on deck, hitting the steel beneath him. She winced as the vibrations of his impact moved through her body.

Katara finished checking the hull for damages, then moved to greet their companions. She took Zuko's hand, thinking nothing of the small gesture, and pulled him toward the control room.

_Why's she holding his hand like that? _Toph wondered, nose wrinkling. _She never did that before, not even after the two of them first got back. _Her lips stretched into a frown, eyebrows pulling together in confusion. _That's . . . odd. _

They moved across the deck, cajoling Appa into entering one of the storage units. The bison's heavy paws sent vibrations all over the ship, clearing up the picture even more for her seismic senses.

"Toph's waiting up in the control room," Katara said, audible now that she was closer. "We should stay there until we're out at sea, so we'll have advance warning of an attack."

"I wasn't expecting a ship this . . . big," Zuko said, tilting his head to look at the looming structures.

_Wait till you see how many extra rooms it has, _Toph thought, grinning to herself. _We could each have our own place to stay and still have rooms left over. _

Katara led the others up to the control room.

"So I take it we're not sinking?"

"No, we're not sinking. Is the ship still clear of intruders?"

"Yep. We're good to go."

Katara took the helm and moved the ship away from the beach. Once again, Toph felt a sudden disconnect as they broke free of the sand. _Ugh. Open water. _

"How long will it take to get there?" Zuko asked.

"Not long. We might make it before the night is over, in this ship."

"Oh. Well, that's good."

_Something went unsaid there, _Toph thought, closing her blind eyes in an attempt to ignore the shifting sea below. _He should be happier about that. _

A wave of nausea abolished her confusion. She staggered over to the nearest bucket, a foul-smelling pail that had obviously been used for a similar purpose prior to their takeover.

She didn't think of it anymore after that.

Katara

After three hours at the helm, Iroh took over, giving her time to explore the ship in depth and find something aboard to eat. Zuko went with her.

"Ready for the invasion?" she asked, trying to remain casual, in case Toph was listening.

"I've got my dual blades, and all the rest of my stuff. Are _you _ready?"

She nodded. "As ready as one can be." Her face fell a little bit. "Back when I was in the South Pole, I always dreamed of fighting against the Fire Nation. It was the only way I could cope with what they'd done to my mother. I should be happy I get a chance to help take down the Fire Nation. It should feel like a dream come true . . ."

"But?"

"But for some reason, it doesn't feel like that. I'm ready, and I'm focused, but I'm not excited. I don't feel like I'm about to get retribution for everything that's been done to me. If anything, I feel . . . worried. Not that I'm going to get killed, or captured, but that things aren't going to be the same after as they are now." Her eyes drifted to the metal floor.

Zuko lifted a hand to her chin and tilted her head up so she was looking at him. "You don't have to be worried about a thing. I'll take care of you, even if it costs me my life."

"Zuko . . ."

"Don't," he said, his golden eyes overflowing with intensity. Katara's heart quickened. "Don't try to tell me that it wouldn't be worth it for me to sacrifice myself. Don't try to tell me that you matter less. I love you, Katara, and when this is all over, you'll be my queen."

Her breath quickened with her heart, and the world swam in front of her eyes. Zuko leaned in to kiss her. She could tell he was trying to be gentle. She could tell, as his fingers wound through her hair, that he was failing.

"There's a bedroom at the end of the hall," she whispered against his lips. His hands moved down to her hips, tracing the contours of her body. A moment later, his arms wound around her waist, giving him the leverage to pick her up without breaking the kiss.

They barely made it to the bedroom. Zuko kicked the door shut behind them, loath to part from her for even a second. As soon as it shut, he reached for the stretchy fabric of her skirt and jerked it down, exposing her lower half in one fell swoop.

She parted the curtain of his shirt, fingers deftly unhooking each button. The piece of fabric fell to the floor with a soft rustle. Zuko's fingers found the bottom of her shirt and lifted it up. Katara raised her arms, facilitating his movements. This part was going by a lot faster than it had the first time, but that was fine with her. All the playing around in the beginning was fun enough, but the promise of things to come made her want to shove him down on the bed and get to it.

Her fingers slid down to his pants, freeing them from his body with one swift movement. A moment later, she felt the warm lump under his smallclothes. A low moan, muffled by her bare shoulder, broke free of his throat.

They were almost naked now. She moved her hands up to his shoulders and eased him down onto the bed. He leaned back, allowing her to position herself on top of him. Katara's fingers traced the hard lines of his abdomen, feeling the muscles flex under her touch. She continued down, hooking her index fingers around the top of his underwear and bringing them down about his legs. He breathed deeply, moving to kiss her again.

"I love you," he whispered fiercely, as if he was facing her in battle, not in bed. She brought her mouth down on his to silence him, then moved over him, lining everything up as she'd done the first time. Warm fluid flowed down from somewhere deep inside her, making that part of her body slippery. When she shifted forward to grant him passage, they both moaned.

"Please," he whispered, latching onto her hips and bringing her closer. His member slid deeper, moving freely along the moistened passage. Katara tilted her hips forward, already feeling the waves of pleasure threatening to break free. Like a dragon in flight, he moved with her. His breaths were coming quicker now, and she could feel his pulse, synchronizing with hers.

"Zuko," she whispered, all other words stolen from her as the stream of pleasure intensified. "Zuko, Zuko . . ."

"I love you."

"_Zuko_."

"I love you," he repeated. Half a second later, the fluid slipping around inside her doubled in volume.

At that point, she didn't care about the possibility of Toph "seeing" her. She wouldn't have cared if someone had come bursting through the door right then to see why she was shouting. The scream of ecstasy tore free of her throat like a wild animal breaking out of its cage.

An hour passed before she was content to move from the bed.

_Author's Note:_

_I figured since my updates for this story have been a little sporadic lately, I'd write this lemon to keep you entertained. Hope you enjoyed._


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter Forty-Five

"When are we going to tell them?" Zuko asked, rolling over so he was staring at the ceiling. Katara pulled her top over her head and smoothed the soft fabric down before responding.

"Tell who what?"

"About us. When are we going to tell the others?"

She thought about that after a moment, trying to figure out the least problematic time to bring it up. _If I tell them before the invasion, it might distract them from our mission. And if what's left the group splinters now, we don't stand a chance. But if we wait until after we rescue Sokka, he'll freak out. _She frowned, her thoughts momentarily drifting to her brother's wellbeing. _Where could Azula have taken him? They won't think to put him in any special prison. He can't bend, so they won't label him a threat. _

"Katara?"

She glanced up, realizing that Zuko was still waiting for a reply. "After the invasion, but before we find my brother," she decided after another moment. "The less people we tell at once, the less chaos there'll be. Sokka can be told after everyone else has gotten used to the idea. That'll take away about half his arguments." _Hopefully. Or maybe he'll yell at you for keeping it from him as long as you have._

The firebender nodded. "That sounds good."

"Why do you ask?"

He hesitated. "I guess . . . I wasn't sure if you were . . ."

"If I was what?"

"I mean, we've been enemies for a long time. I thought it might be . . . uncomfortable for you . . . if they were to find out about it. I wanted to do this on your terms."

"Oh." _I didn't even think about that. But maybe he's right. Sokka won't be pleased, but I wouldn't have expected him to be happy no matter who I chose, so it won't be so awful to deal with that. Toph isn't so close to the situation, so she'd probably take it better. Iroh will be happy for his nephew. _

_Would Aang be happy? _The thought came to her unbidden, unwanted. As she bent down to pick up her discarded skirt, she saw her hand shaking.

_Aang's not here._

_But would he be happy about this? About what you're doing? It doesn't matter, _she told herself. _Aang's not here. And he'd want me to be happy, even if the person I want to be with was . . . _

"Is something wrong?" Zuko asked, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and sitting up. The sheets tangled around his ankles and pulled free of the mattress, exposing his bare body. Katara averted her eyes, fighting the pang of guilt that shot through her.

"It's nothing."

Zuko must've understood her need to think, because he said nothing as he pulled his smallclothes up to cover himself.

_Even if he used to be my enemy, even if I have to live in the Fire Nation the rest of my life . . . Aang would be happy that I'm happy. He'd have to be, that's how he was raised. _She thought of his childish features, the optimism in his gray eyes. Eyes that had once looked to her for guidance, for comfort, for attention.

Eyes that had sometimes overflowed with an emotion she'd never been able to place. At first, she'd assumed it was excitement at the prospect of having a new friend. After losing all his people, Aang would've needed someone to latch onto. And later, after spending a few weeks in the North Pole, she'd labeled that look as admiration, a respect accorded to her as she mastered her element.

_But . . . What if that was never it?_ Her gaze shifted to Zuko. His eyes were fixed on the buttons of his shirt, but a soft smile lit up his normally-brooding face, and his gaze seemed to have softened, gone from solid gold to warm honey. _It's the same, _she thought, feeling like she'd walked out of her igloo and into a blizzard without a jacket. _It's the same look, the same eyes. The same everything._

She realized she'd been holding her skirt for almost a minute. Hastily, she stuck her legs through the narrow loop of fabric and let the garment settle over her legs. "We should be getting back to the others. I have to make tea."

"Uncle will make the tea. He loves to do that."

She sighed, but grasped at the distraction. "No, Zuko. I need _special _tea."

"Why would you need . . . _Oh_." His face shifted into a disturbed mask, and his unscarred cheek burned red.

"I'm just thinking, there'll be plenty of time for that . . . after." _After what? _part of her mind criticized. _After the invasion? After the war? After you get married to a prince? _She babbled on, pushing the thoughts out of her mind. "Not that we have to worry about that anytime soon. I mean, even if we got married tomorrow, we're too young to have kids, and we'd have plenty of things to do to restore peace. So that part of it can wait. Right?"

His whole face glowed like he was facing the sunset. "Right," he choked out, seeming relieved.

Katara straightened out her hair, panicking a little as her fingers tugged at the tangles. Several strands ripped loose, causing sparks of pain to run across her scalp. Her breath quickened.

"Katara?"

"I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"Your face is almost as pale as mine."

She lifted a hand to her cheek. Her hands felt clammy and cold against her face. Somehow, the thought of having a child had made the whole thing seem so _real_.

_I just slept with the prince of the Fire Nation, _she thought, fingers trembling against her cheek. _For the second time in my life. Oh, great moon, I'm only fifteen, what the hell am I _doing_? _

"Katara, are you sure you're okay?"

"I . . ." She couldn't have said anything else, even if she'd had words to describe the twisting threads of emotion winding around her heart.

Accusative: _Would Aang be happy? _

Shocked: _I just _slept _with the prince of the Fire Nation._

Heartsick: _It's the same face. Aang had that same expression when he looked at me. _

"I don't feel so good," she whispered, just as her knees fell out from under her.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter Forty-Six

They docked in the harbor district in the blackest hour of night.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Zuko asked, as Katara maneuvered the hulking ship over to docks.

"It was just a fainting spell. I forgot to eat, that's all. Get the buoys and move them to the port side." She pointed to the correct side of the boat, not sure if the firebender would understand her directions. "We don't want to damage the hull in case we end up having to flee the city."

The firebender hurried out of the control room and down to the deck, seeming comfortable on the boat after three years at sea. _I suppose I should be grateful for that,_ Katara thought, easing the massive ship closer to the docks. _It makes this part of the journey a lot easier._

Through the smoke-stained window, she saw Zuko move the buoys over the edge of the ship to buffer their landing. As slow as she could, she steered the ship into position. The contact with the steel dock resonated through the whole vessel, but the impact wasn't great enough to cause damage. As soon as they were off the ship, it wouldn't matter.

Zuko and his uncle busied themselves on the dock, tying the boat down with heavy-duty cables and other devices. Katara cut the engine and went down to help them.

"Land," Toph whispered, staggering out of the bathroom, where she'd been throwing up the past five hours. "Sweet, sweet land."

Securing a boat to a dock was something water tribe children learned before they could read. Katara helped with the final preparations, overseeing each step of the process to make sure no one would fall overboard now that they were in safe harbor.

_Safe harbor, _she thought, shaking her head at the irony. _Safe harbor in the Fire Nation capital._

A few minutes later, they finished securing the ship. She knew the lines tethering them to the dock could be cut with simple water whips if they had to make an emergency exit, but would still hold fast until then. _There'll be a power vacuum, if we win, _she thought. _Zuko will have to be ready to take charge as soon as the eclipse is over. And there's still Azula to consider. _She wondered if the psychopath was back in the city already, or still on her way. _If we catch her as she enters the city, there's a chance Sokka and Ty Lee will still be aboard her ship. She can't be too far behind us, if she's on her way. That ship of hers is fast._

"Where are we going to stay?" Katara asked, turning to Zuko for an answer.

"On the ship. There are ample sleeping quarters, and Toph will be able to alert us if anyone suspicious tries to get onto the boat."

The earthbender groaned. "You mean I have to stay on this unstable hunk of metal?"

"Looks like it," she said. "Don't worry. The eclipse is tomorrow, and we aren't planning to go out into open water again before that. You won't have to deal with it too long."

The twelve-year-old groaned again and stalked over to the interior compartments of the ship.

Katara turned toward the prince. "You said there was some grass on the outer edges of the caldera. Do you think we'll be able to get Appa there safely?"

"I think so. We'd better do it now, before people start waking up."

They moved over to the compartment where Appa had been cooped up. As the metal doors slid open with a crash, the bison broke free of the cramped room and flew in a circle over the boat. When he landed on deck a moment later, another crash pierced the night air.

"Quiet!" she hissed, knowing the bison would understand. Appa was a smart creature, capable of understanding hundreds of words without confusion. That was why flying bison had been companions to the air nomads to begin with.

_But the air nomads are all gone now, _she thought. _Appa and Momo are the only creatures left in the world to come from the abandoned temples. _

"I'll go with you," Zuko said as she ushered Appa over toward dry land.

"No." She bit her lip at the harsh tone of her response. "I mean . . . it's no big thing. I can do it alone."

"You'll be safer with another person."

"Really, it's fine."

His golden eyes surveyed her a moment longer. He sighed. "What's really bothering you?"

"Nothing."

"After we . . . After last night, you were so reserved . . . When you fainted, I thought it was because you were getting sick, but that wasn't it at all, was it? Something's been bugging you ever since we . . ."

She sighed. "I was thinking about Aang."

The firebender was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was level, calm. "You're still in mourning."

"He was my best friend in the world, one of the only people I could actually relate to . . . When I heard what happened to him . . ." She shuddered, turning away from the firebender. "I needed someone to take care of me. I needed someone to distract me from the pain, s-so . . . so I latched onto you, and I . . . I mean, I don't regret what we've done, but . . ." She tried to breathe and ended up sobbing instead.

A gentle hand came down on her shoulder, alerting her to the shudders running down her body. Trying to get the words out before the tears overwhelmed her, she said, "I love you . . . I love you, more than I ever realized I could, but . . . I loved Aang too. Not the same way as I love you, but . . . I needed something to replace that hole he left behind, and I used you to . . ."

"I don't care."

"Because I couldn't handle my emotions on my own, I used you. I acted on my needs without even considering the consequences. Because I needed someone to fill the hole, because I was too weak to bear the pain of it, I . . ."

"I don't care," he repeated, more intensely.

A spasm wracked her body, and she doubled over. "And the fact that I couldn't control myself, that I fed off what you felt for me instead of facing my own problems . . . It makes me think I don't deserve someone like you."

"Katara, listen to me. Turn around and look at me."

She tried to lift her tear-streaked face to look at him. She couldn't. His hand moved to the bottom of her chin, tilting her head up. "Look at me," he whispered.

"I don't deserve it."

"Damn it, Katara, _look _at me."

It took everything she had to turn her neck the few degrees to meet his eyes. They shone with a desperate glint, like moonlight hitting the edge of a sword.

"What you're doing now," he whispered, his voice just barely carrying over the soothing whisper of the waves hitting the metal dock. "All this talk of how you don't think you're good enough, of how you think that letting yourself _feel _is somehow selfish . . . _That _is what's hurting me. I don't care how it started, I don't care if it didn't mean anything to you at first. I know it means something to you now, otherwise you wouldn't be crying over it." His voice dropped another few decibels, almost inaudible now. "I know it meant something to me, too."

She blinked, and another pair of tears slipped down her face. "Zuko, I . . ."

"I love you, Katara. Unconditionally. Irrevocably. If you don't love me back, I won't stop you from leaving, but . . . even if we lose, even if you leave me after the eclipse, even if all the stars wink out of existence . . . I will _always _love you. Always."

Broken as she was, the only response she could give was a faint "Really?"

"Yes," he whispered, his lips descending on hers. They lingered there, his sweet taste mingling with the salt of her tears. A low whimper rose in her throat, and he pulled away, waiting for some other reaction.

"I love you, too," she whispered. "Unconditionally. Irrevocably. Always."

He smiled, that soft, genuine smile she so rarely saw from him. He lifted his hands up to her face and wiped her tears away with a brush of his thumbs. Without another word between them, he pulled her into his arms and held her in a warm embrace.


	47. Chapter 47

_Warning: this chapter will probably gross you out._

Chapter Forty-Seven

Morning came with the unnatural silence of a world destroyed. Azula opened her eyes, looking up at the gray ceiling panels above her for a moment before slowly sitting up. Her silk blankets rustled softly in the silent room. Almost at once, she felt something slippery moving between her thighs. Startled by the sensation, she threw off her covers, hand flying to the bare skin of her legs. As her fingers came down on the sticky fluid, she realized why the world around her seemed so strange today.

She stared at the splotch of blood seeping into her sheets, stunned as her mind processed what was going on. Her handmaids had told her many times of this event, some of them with excitement, and others with rigid annoyance. _My first moon blood, _Azula thought, feeling curiously distant, as if the thoughts belonged to someone else and were merely filtering through her mind. The red patch extended out from where she'd been lying, nearly six inches in diameter. _First blood. My first blood, on the day of the eclipse._

"Tazia. Tazia!" she called, knowing her most talented handmaid slept just across the hall, ready to obey any order she gave. If the woman heard her now, though, she gave no response.

Distress welled up inside her, an unfamiliar sensation in a body used to confidence and leadership. She tore free of the sheets and threw herself over the edge of the bed, clumsily coming to her feet. A wave of revulsion flooded her body as a line of blood trickled down her thigh. Pressing her legs close together to stop any further mess, she staggered over to her personal bathroom to clean herself. As she wiped a wet washcloth across the sticky fluid, she realized her efforts were doing little good. She discarded her soiled nightclothes and stalked over to her dresser, clamping an absorbent cloth over the afflicted area as she rifled through her drawers. After a frustrating interval, she found an undergarment suitable for the issue and an outfit for the day, and returned to the bathroom.

This time, her wits were about her. She wiped away the drying patches of blood, gagging only once, and outfitted her smallclothes to handle the flow. _My first blood, _she thought. She knew it was significant, knew it was an important part of moving forward, but somehow, having it arrive for the first time on the day of an eclipse seemed like an ill omen.

When her body was clean and dressed, she went over to her stained bed. _I'll have the maids replace the sheets, _she thought. _I can't sleep on a bloodstained bed. _

"Tazia! _Tazia_!" she called again, her voice almost cracking with her volume. When she heard no answer, Azula stalked over to her door and flung it open. Her fist came down, cloaked in blue fire, on her handmaid's door. "Tazia! I need your assistance."

Finally, the thirty-something year old woman peeked her head out of the door, eyes bleary as if she'd had too much wine the previous night, and still not recovered. "Yes, princess?" she said, automatically courteous.

Azula opened her mouth to explain what happened. For the first time in her life, her resolve faltered, and her eyes fell to her toes. "My sheets are unclean. They need to be taken to the palace laundry room and scrubbed clean."

"Princess Azula, the sun hasn't even risen. None of the servants will be at the laundry room for another hour, at least."

"Take them there," she commanded, some small part of her ripping loose from the rest. "I don't care, just get them out of my sight."

Her tone must've conveyed some greater message than the simple commands. Tazia straightened up, then bowed her head. "I will tend to it immediately, Princess."

"Good. Do." Azula turned as if to move back to her room, then turned again, facing the wall as if the plain metal bore some interesting design. Within her bedchamber, she heard the shuffle of silk, the soft sigh of her senior handmaid, the sound of sheets whipping through the air and landing in a basket. Tazia came out, the bundle of sheets folded in on themselves in the basket to conceal the scarlet splotches.

"Would you like me to inform your father?" Tazia asked. Horror swept through her.

"Of course not. There is too much to do today, there's no time."

The woman looked at her moment longer, her pale blue eyes direct, probing. _Too familiar, _she thought. _This wench acts too familiar, looking at me like that. _Part of her wanted to lift a hand and slap the peasant's face. No one would rebuke her for that; no one dared stand against her except her father and a few bold members of noble families.

_Like Mai and Ty Lee, _a tiny voice whispered inside her head. She shut the voice out, as if slamming a door, and heard it no more.

Her handmaid bowed. "As you wish, Princess Azula. I will not trouble him."

"Good. Go then."

She went. Azula returned to her room, turning her face away from the bare mattress. _The blood didn't seep all the way through, _she thought, relieved. Now that everything was clean, she could bear to move about the room.

She went to bathroom again, lighting all the torches this time so she could see as she sat down in front of the mirror. She closed her eyes, letting the smooth motions of her hairbrush soothe her.

"You're a lucky girl, Azula."

Her eyes snapped open, and she recoiled, almost falling off her chair. The face in the mirror stared back at her. For a moment, she thought that somehow her own reflection had moved without her. It took her a moment to realize it was not her face staring back at her. The slope of the forehead was the same, and the golden-brown eyes reflecting back at her were the same, but the features were more mature, the cheekbones just a bit too high.

"Mother?" she asked, her throat closing up, making her voice hoarse.

"Dear Azula, this is a wonderful thing."

"Mother . . . What are you doing here? You're banished, Father said so . . ."

"These are things a mother needs to take care of, don't you agree?"

Anger welled up inside her, overpowering her shock. "You always resented me. You thought I was a monster, treated me like I was less than my traitor brother . . . You're no mother to me."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Azula, but that's simply not true. I always loved you."

"Lies! Filthy lies from a rotten traitor. You're lucky Father only banished you. He should've had your head."

"Oh, my dear, you misunderstand me. I'm only taking an interest in what's happened to you. The first moon blood is always the worst, but it happens to every girl, and it means you'll be able to have children some day."

"I don't _want _any sniveling brats running around my house!"

"You are young, my dear. Your wants will change."

She stood up, knocking over the chair she'd perched herself upon. "If you wanted so much to do with my life, why did you favor Zuko? Why, when I was the best, when I deserved it more than him?"

"Every child needs love. Your father favored you, so I comforted Zuko. But I loved you both equally, from the moment the nurse laid you in my arms."

"Stop _lying_. You're no good at it."

"If my love was a lie, I would never have done what I did to move your father to where he stands now. I would never have abandoned you if I hadn't thought it was best."

"No . . . You left because you saw nothing in me to love. Why not just say it, _Mother_?" She spat the last word, like a curse.

"I thought I was leaving a better life for you and Zuko both. I can see now that I was wrong. I should have taken you with me, where I could've raised you right."

Azula lifted her fist high into the air and brought it down on the silvery surface of the mirror. It shattered, shards of glass flying across the bathroom counter, falling to the floor. Blood spurted out from her knuckles as the sharp edges dug into her flesh. _I'm bleeding from everywhere today, aren't I? _she thought, her mind dazed with the force of her rage.

Tazia came rushing in just then. "Princess, are you all right?"

"The mirror. She's in the mirror, can't you see?" Azula pointed at the remaining shards, refusing to look at them a second longer.

The peasant's blue eyes flickered to the fractured mirror, then back to her. "Princess?"

"Look at the mirror! She's in the mirror!"

The woman looked again, her face a mask of unconcealed confusion. "Princess . . . There's no one in the mirror except you and me."

Azula turned her head and stared at the shattered fragments of the mirror. Half a dozen images of her face stared back at her, the perspective skewed in the warped surface. In some of the shards, she saw bits of her handmaid's bland face. As she'd said, there was no one else in the mirror.

Azula stared a moment longer, as if trying to make her golden brown eyes turn back to the eyes of her mother. As she stared, she saw a single tear roll down the side of her face, repeating over and over in each silvery fragment.


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter Forty-Eight

If he had never seen the city before today, he would've assumed all its people had died without a trace.

Perched on top of the edge of the caldera, Zuko stared out at the empty city, trying to come to terms with the bright, midday sun and the bleak absence of movement below. _It's like a world that's ended, _he thought. "We're getting close," he said, polishing the black blades of his dual swords. Katara looked up at him, her face solemn, ready for battle. Toph stared out at the city, as if she could somehow see it. Uncle stared out at the palace, his mouth set in a grim line.

Zuko stood. "We'll only have about eight minutes from the time the moon passes over the sun. We'd best be on our way before that."

The others gathered up their weapons. Katara pulled a stream of water from the ocean around them, wrapping the clear liquid around her body like a cloak. Toph tightened her fists, ready to move literal mountains to help them win. Uncle acted similarly, stretching out and cracking his old bones. When all that was done, they started walking.

It shouldn't have been so easy to move through the silent city. There should've been guards, soldiers who'd never been able to firebend, but who'd been trained in weapons. At the very least, there should've been people watching for invaders. But all the watchtowers stood abandoned. _This didn't happen overnight, _Zuko thought. _There's no way so many people could've left the island without our noticing. _"Toph, can you tell me how many people you sense in these houses?" he asked.

"Between two and four in most of them. Most people are hiding away in their cellars, but a few are near the windows, peeking out. None of them are armed."

"That's strange." _I would've expected alerts to be sent across the whole nation, but if no one's got weapons on hand . . . _He frowned.

"An inexperienced sailor will feel the winds change and press on," Uncle said grimly. "but a seasoned captain knows the meaning of all the winds, and knows when to retreat."

"We can't retreat. This is our only chance."

Uncle said nothing to that, merely continuing on as they walked through the city.

_Have they dropped their guard because the Avatar is dead? _Zuko wondered. That didn't seem likely, since they'd still been cautious about solar eclipses when everyone had assumed the Avatar had gone missing permanently. _Or is it something else? Have their troops fallen back to defend the palace?_

He looked up at the sun again, still waiting for the moon to cross over the edge. With his Dual Dao Blades in a city soon to be helpless, he should've felt invincible.

He didn't. He felt vulnerable and scared and sick to his stomach. Some primal instinct warned him that something was about to go horribly awry, but he couldn't identify a single thing wrong with this city except that it was dangerously undefended. _Father wouldn't be so careless to leave his citizens unprotected, would he? Not this close to the day of the comet._

"I can feel it," he said, keeping his voice low, not because he was afraid someone would overhear, but because, in the pressing silence, every word felt like a shout. "I can feel how close the eclipse is."

"I feel it, too, Nephew."

Cloaked in water, Katara moved forward to walk alongside him. "Even if they aren't armed, why haven't we been attacked? The eclipse hasn't started yet; people should be trying to fight us."

"Maybe they don't know we're a threat."

Katara looked doubtfully at her shifting cloak. "It's pretty obvious, isn't it?"

It was, but he didn't want to say it out loud. Somehow, declaring their obvious attempt at infiltration would make it too real.

He squinted at the sun, still a perfect circle of light. _Something's wrong here, _he thought.

_But what? _

Azula

"You have to come down to the safe rooms, princess," Tazia said, arms extended in a plea.

Azula sat on the elaborate chair beside the throne, plucking a grape from the vine and popping it into her mouth. "I'm the princess of the Fire Nation. I don't _have _to do anything."

"It isn't safe for you here, m'lady. The Earth Kingdom has been silent for weeks. It's very possible they're planning an attack."

"The Earth Kingdom fell when I took their greatest city," she snapped, rising from her chair. It wasn't as elegant as the empty throne beside her, but at the moment that didn't matter. _That throne will be mine soon, _she thought. _And I will crush the last of the resistance. _

As she rose, she felt the uncomfortable trickle of moon blood seeping out of her. She grimaced, feeling her face flush though her handmaids had no way to know what had just happened. _Why did it have to be today? _she thought. _It could've been any other day, so why today? _Her lips turned down in a snarl. "I will stay here through the eclipse. I am not such a coward as to fear battle when no troops have arrived on shore."

"Please, Princess," said one of the younger handmaids. _The replacement for that girl, _she thought, trying to recall the name of the one she'd burned to death a few weeks ago. When she couldn't remember the name, her frown deepened. _She had a name. I knew it at some point. What was it? _It seemed significant somehow, as if attaching the name to the worthless wretch would somehow nullify her annoyance.

The dead girl's replacement was going on. "We wish only for your safety. Please, if not for your own sake, for your people."

"My people will not follow a coward who hides from the rest of the world."

"Princess, even your father has gone underground. You are the last of the royal family left on the surface."

Her voice rose with her anger. "Let the others hide like rodents under the dirt! They're all cowards!"

There was a collective gasp from the workers. No one was permitted to speak of the royal family that way, not even a member of the family. Azula watched, half-amused and half-annoyed, as they exchanged looks of shock and indecision. _They won't go to Father with this. They fear me too much after what I did to the other girl . . . _

_Her name. What was her name? _

"Why bother trying to figure it out, Azula? You've already burned so many people already."

Her head snapped up at the first syllable, her eyes roving around the room for the face that went with that voice. Yet the only people in the room were her and her servants.

"I want you all out of here," she snapped suddenly, plopping back down in her chair. "Tell my father I chose to wait out in the open."

They didn't dare disobey a direct order from her. Her handmaids scuttled out of the room. "The rest of you as well. I'll have no one pestering me today."

Two dozen Dai-Li agents glanced up at her command. Their leader came forth. "Princess, we were stationed here to protect you. Don't you wish for us to stay?"

"_All _of you, out. Do I have to say it again?"

They faltered under her commands. One by one, they lined up and strode out of the throne room.

"It was wise to get rid of them," Mai's voice said, prompting her to shoot a wild glance all across the room. "They betrayed the Earth Kingdom; they would've betrayed you, too."

"Yes," she whispered. "All traitors. I should have them banished, killed . . . rewarded as a traitor deserves."

Mai said no more, wherever she was. Azula waited, ears straining to hear any sound above the constant crackle of the throne-room fires. Many minutes passed without a whisper. Eventually, she started talking just to fill the emptiness.

"I feel so strange, but I can't tell if it's the eclipse, or my moon blood. It's so inconvenient, having both at the same time. Mai, you should've been here to help me, you're the only one I can trust."

She waited for an answer, but received none.

"Even Ty Lee would've been preferable to a servant. But I can't visit her now, she's locked up in a cell on the other side of the city." She laughed, imagining how the guards must be treating her. She'd heard the rumors of how people treated female prisoners in those facilities. _Just imagine her face when they start ripping her clothes off. She'll be scared, she'll be so scared, but there's nothing she can do, not tied down like she is. _Azula started laughing, a wild, feral sound.

"That's not funny," Mai's voice said.

"What are you talking about? She's a traitor, she deserves whatever she gets."

"Only a monster would wish that on someone."

_My own mother thought I was a monster, _some small part of her whispered. A small shudder ran down her back. "No . . ." she whispered. Then louder, she said. "No. You _lie_. She deserves whatever they think to do to her. I would give them permission, if I didn't have appearances to worry about."

"I always knew you were a bitch, Azula, but I never thought you'd sink this low."

With no physical target to unleash her anger on, she picked up the bowl of grapes she'd been snacking on and threw them onto the ground hard enough to break the basket. "Go ahead and say that. You're dead, and I'm still alive! And in a few more weeks, I'll be the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world, and you'll be nothing but dust and bones underground."

When no one answered, something slipped inside her. She shot forward intending to let loose a blast of blue fire. Instead, a weak puff of orange broke free from her knuckles and fell unsatisfactorily to the floor.

_The eclipse has started, _she thought as a trickle of blood slipped down her inner thigh.


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter Forty-Nine

"There!" Toph shouted, voice booming across the silent city. Her arm shot up to point toward the palace roof.

Zuko looked up, raising his swords. The edge of the moon was just overlapping the sun now, stealing away his firebending. As he looked up at the rooftop, he saw the arrows shoot toward them by the dozen, casting narrow shadows across the ground.

Katara reacted instantly at the earthbender's cry, bringing a wall of water up between them and the palace and turning it to ice. The arrows buried themselves deep in the frozen liquid, causing cracks to spider-web out along the hidden fault lines. Another dozen arrows sliced through the air a second later, embedding themselves in the ice in much the same fashion.

_The Yu-Yan Archers, _he thought, remembering how close they'd come to killing him when he'd broken into Zhao's stronghold to steal away the Avatar. "We have to get into the palace now. They'll lose sight of us once we're within the walls."

They started running. Katara's arms swung wildly, making the water swirl around them like a waterspout. Now and then, Zuko would catch sight of an arrow through the rushing water. None broke through, cast aside by the great torrent.

_I never realized water could be so powerful, _he thought as they raced up the palace steps. Toph paused for a moment, pulling a massive boulder from the ground and slamming it into the massive double doors, like a rock from a catapult. The doors flew open, one of them snapping off its hinges with a splintering sound under the force of the impact.

A quarter of the sun was covered now. Under a hail of arrows, they burst through the destroyed doors and into the palace.

"There's no one here," Katara said, drawing the water back around herself.

"Everyone's underground." Toph knelt down, pressing a hand against the floor to get a clearer picture. "They're all hiding away in steel boxes, four levels down from here."

"It's the eclipse. They're hiding down there until they can bend again." He moved forward, toward the nearest entrance.

"Guys, we've got a problem," the blind earthbender said, hand tensing as she lifted it from the floor.

Dread seeped through Zuko's heart, like poison seeping through veins. "What is it?"

She lifted her hand and pointed to one of the many corridors, just as a dark figure staggered in from the hallway.

Ty Lee

It was always cold here.

Ty Lee knew it shouldn't have been cold, knew the tropical climate of the Fire Nation and the prison's position over an active volcano shouldn't have allowed the temperature to drop, but she was cold nonetheless.

Sometimes, she wondered if the cold came from inside her, or if the guards were pumping cold air into her cell just for the hell of it.

Her arms curled around her body as best as they could, straining against the chains that tethered her to the freezing wall. She couldn't wrap them around her body as she wished, but she could draw them in close enough to hold some of the warmth in.

She sat there, curled up like that, until a noise at her door made her jump. The chains jingled sinisterly, holding her arms in place when they wanted nothing more to flail wildly. Tears rose to her eyes, hot compared to the frigid air around her. A whimper broke free of her throat.

"Not again," she sobbed as the metal door slid open. Her body reeled back, pressing itself to the wall in an effort to loosen her restraints as much as possible, so she could fight back, even though she knew she could not. "Please, not again, please . . ." _No, it'll hurt, it'll hurt like last time . . ._

Something clattered to the floor in front of her, loud enough to make her go still in fear. Her eyes remained stubbornly closed, unwilling to see the face of her visitor. For some reason, they always took off their helmets when they came to torment her. _They want me to see their faces, they want me to _look, _but I won't, oh no, I won't, I won't . . . _Another sob broke free of her throat.

"Eat your food, wench. It's the last you'll get for a while."

Her eyes flew open at the promise of food. _How long has it been? _she wondered. _Three days? Four? They gave me water once, but that was so long ago . . . _Her stomach snarled, reawakened by the smell of half-cooked rice and mushy carrots. For a moment, everything else in the world disappeared.

Then she remembered she had more important things to think about. "Wait!" she pleaded, just as the guard was backing out of the cell. He threw her a look of contempt which, had she not been in the position she was, would've prompted her to paralyze him from the neck down. "Wait, please. I have a question."

"No questions from the prisoners."

"Please, it's just a little . . . There's a prisoner that came here with me, a man with dark skin and blue eyes. A water tribe peasant." She felt guilty for calling Sokka a peasant, even out of his hearing, but she knew that was the only term the guard would understand, short of "barbarian" or "savage." She went on. "Do you know if he's still alive?"

The man's lips twisted into a snarl. _Like a mongrel dog, _she thought, replacing his face with the more appropriate image. _They're all animals here, all savage beasts . . . _

The guard spoke. "All the water tribe peasants in the facility were taken out and executed two days ago."

Ty Lee flinched as if she'd been slapped. _It wouldn't be the first time they've slapped you, _the bitter part of her mind whispered. _Over and over again, when they were . . . when they were . . . _

Her eyes sunk to the dingy floor beneath her. The cells were not often cleaned, and whoever had done it last must've been a shoddy janitor, to leave so much dirt behind. In her white prison uniform, the brown patches were more visible, a reminder that she was locked away in this filthy place until Zuko took the crown and freed her.

_Soon, _she prayed, but the prayer sounded flat in her mind.

_What good does freedom do if you've lost everyone you care about? _she wondered. _Dead. My Sokka is dead. _

"You just gonna stare at the tray all afternoon?" the guard demanded, annoyed. Some survival instinct told her not to annoy him, told her that gaining any favor with any of the guards could mean a reprieve from their next "treatment," as they liked to call it.

Female prisoners were seldom treated well in Fire Nation prisons. Ty Lee didn't know if this was true for any of the other nations, given that she'd never been hurt enough to get caught before. Until they'd torn open the pink blouse she'd come to the prison with, she'd assumed their only motive for chaining her down was too keep her from escaping.

In seconds, she'd realized that wasn't the reason at all.

She remembered the last words that had been spoken to her, before they'd started their "treatment". The words had seared themselves into her memory, repeating over and over again, as many times as they came to visit her: _"Like a crown jewel sitting atop a pile of shit."_

Hours later, too ashamed and sickened by what they'd done to her to move, she'd realized she was capable of hatred, capable of murder.

All she needed was an opportunity.


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter Fifty

"Azula."

She grinned. "Zuko. And friends. _Wonderful_."

Katara looked between the siblings, waiting for Zuko's signal to move. The water clung close to her body, cool against her skin. _I'm ready, _she told herself. _We'll fight, and we'll win._

"Your firebending is useless now, Azula. Surrender, and I'll show mercy."

_Mercy? _Katara wondered, eyes flickering back to the firebending prince. _After all she's done, he would show her mercy?_

The answer came just as swiftly as the question. _Of course he would. I wouldn't love him otherwise. _"He's right. Stand down now."

Azula's grin widened. "Oh, I don't think that will be necessary."

"Something's wrong with her," Toph said, eyebrows pushing together to form an uneven line. Before the blind earthbender could say anything else, though, the princess lunged forward.

Katara reacted first, pushing a heavy flow of water toward the fire-deprived girl. Azula sprang forward, flipping through the air with almost as much grace as Ty Lee. "Get to the lower levels!" she yelled, sparing one final glance for her friends. Zuko nodded once, then turned and ran toward one of the corridors, followed closely by the others. Toph was the only one who hesitated. "Go. She's weakened. I can take her!"

The younger girl's hands clenched into fists, and she hurried after the others.

Katara returned her attention to the Fire Nation princess. "I've been waiting for this fight a long time," she said. "Ever since the Crystal Catacombs."

"What a pity, then, that you're going to die here."

Katara brought the water around in a wide arc, to protect herself from whatever threat Azula might present without her firebending. The princess merely stood there, grinning. A moment ago, she had seemed dangerously unhinged. Now, though, she was the same confident bitch Katara had fought in the Crystal Catacombs. _It'll end differently this time, _she thought. _I have the upper hand. _

She struck all at once, as Master Pakku had once taught her. Ice spears shot forward from her moving wall of water, some barely the size of knitting needles, some as thick and long as the stalactites in King Bumi's sparring arena. They flew forward, all aimed at the dark-haired monster.

Azula waited until they were about to hit her to move. A fraction of a second before she would've been impaled, she danced out of the way, moving so fast it was like watching a skilled dancer move about a stage. She sidestepped all the large spears, then bore the force of the smaller ones, until rivulets of blood dripped down her arms and torso.

Katara gathered up the water again and sent another shower of spears across the room. The princess met these with similar results. "You'll have to try harder than that," Azula taunted, her golden-brown eyes flashing with . . . something . . . _Confidence? _Katara wondered. _Here and now? Is it a bluff? _

She changed tactics, gathering up the water and moving it in one continuous stream through the chamber. This, Azula couldn't avoid. The liquid took hold of her and dragged her across the room, throwing her against a wall. Katara flash-froze the water, pinning the princess against the wall.

"You killed my best friend," she snarled.

"I killed _my _best friend, too."

"You're a _monster_."

"A monster, you say?"

Something about her tone of voice sent a ripple of disquiet through Katara. There was something there, something _wrong_, about her reaction.

"_Sometimes, I can see cracks under the surface," _Ty Lee had said. _Were these the cracks she was talking about? _Katara wondered.

"Are you just going to stand there?" the princess demanded. "Or are you going to go after my worthless brother so he doesn't get himself killed?"

"What game are you playing at?"

"No game. I was under the impression the two of you were . . . Well, I could be delicate and say you two have grown very close since you escaped my ship, but why bother? It's obvious the two of you are fucking."

Katara flinched at the crass word. Though she understood the meaning, the word had never matched the way she thought of her interactions with Zuko. It was so . . . blunt.

"Oh, so you are?" Azula said. This time, she didn't even bother to hide the unbalanced edge to her smile. "I didn't think my brother would succumb to the advances of a water tribe whore, weak as he may be."

_Don't lose your temper, don't lose your temper, _she chanted to herself.

"If anything, I would've expected him to go to Ty Lee. But then, she seemed _so _concerned about your brother, I can only assume they're . . . well, you know."

_Don't lose your temper. _"And where _is _my brother?"

The princess made a move as if to shrug, then scowled in annoyance when she realized the ice prevented her from doing so. "Last time I checked, he was fighting off a nasty infection from the knife wounds Mai gave him. He's probably dead by now."

_Don't lose your temper. _

"_Azula always lies."_

"_The Avatar is a baby somewhere in the North Pole by now."_

Katara unfroze the ice and slammed the princess into a wall.

Zuko

"They should be down this hole." He looked to Toph, checking to make sure his assumptions were right. She nodded once, and he started the quick descent into the underground hideout, sheathing his dual swords as he climbed down.

He felt almost nauseous as he went deeper into the hole. It was more than the eclipse, he knew. His back had been a bundle of knots for days now, and the stress was wearing away at him like river water wore away at rock. Those discomforts that had been nagging at him for days had become overpowering. The air felt stuffy, stagnant.

_Not right, _he thought, teeth clamping down in the inside of his lips as he repressed a wave of nausea. "Uncle, are you feeling strange?"

The old man looked at him knowingly. "A bit uneasy. Are _you _feeling strange?"

He was feeling _sick_. "A little."

"Perhaps we should go back. Some qualms before battle are normal, but if you truly aren't feeling well . . ."

"No. No, it's not that bad." He continued down, moving as quick as his legs would allow. When he was near the bottom, he dropped and drew his swords. "Toph, is there anyone waiting to ambush us?"

"Not that I can see. Everyone's found a metal box to hide in."

That should've been reassuring. It should've quelled the dread in his stomach. But the knots of worry didn't ease up any. _Breathe. Just breathe. _

They moved quickly down the corridor, until they reached the reinforced metal doors blocking off each compartment. The air around them was sweltering. _This can't all be from body heat, _he thought. _Not even from torches. What's going on here? _

"Can you tell which room my father's in?"

"No," the earthbender said, sounding annoyed. "I've never met him, how would I know what he looks like?"

"Male. Thirty-something. Resembles me, but without the giant scar across his face."

"Zuko," his uncle said disapprovingly, hearing his tone.

"Sorry, Uncle."

Toph pressed a hand against the dirt floor. "That could be any of the rooms."

_Damn. _"We'll have to search them individually." _We don't have much time. We're at least halfway through the eclipse by now. We could only have a minute left, for all we know._

"The ground is hot."

He turned around, frustrated and annoyed at the earthbender's inane observation. "So?"

A rumble rocked the ground under them, just enough to throw him off balance. "Toph, what are you doing?"

"I'm not doing it!"

Another rumble, this one more intense. Zuko knelt down, getting close to the ground to keep his balance. He realized as his hand came down that Toph had been right about the dirt. It was hot, hotter than it should be, even given the temperature of the air.

He had known something was wrong, ever since he entered the city, and he cursed himself for not realizing what it was until now. "The caldera."

"What's a caldera?" the earthbender asked, just as another small quake rocked the ground beneath them.

He looked toward his uncle. His uncle looked back, his face grim. "What are we going to do?" Zuko asked desperately.

"You're going to be a ruler one day, Nephew. One day soon. It's time for you to make the decisions."

He tried to recall what he knew about the volcanoes of the Fire Nation. He knew they sometimes sprang up in just a few years from the ocean. He knew that, while most volcanoes outside the Fire Nation were dormant, most of the ones inside their borders were at least somewhat active.

And he knew, with sickening certainty, that the volcano under their feet was about to go up. "Back to the surface! The island's going to explode!"


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter Fifty-One

Pain shot through her body as her back hit the wall.

Azula didn't flinch. Showing weakness in the Fire Nation was shameful, especially within the royal family, and showing weakness to a peasant from the South Pole was even more so. Instead, her muscles tensed in preparation for the next blow.

_I have endured worse pain than this, _she told herself, remembering the sting of a palm across her cheek, the gut-wrenching agony of a fist hitting her abdomen, the shame and degradation that came with each blow.

"You took everything from me!" the waterbender raved, arms flailing to throw Azula into another wall. "My brother, my best friend! Your nation took away my mother, took everything I held dear!"

_Slam. _Azula repressed a howl of pain as her shoulder cracked against the solid wall. The jolt was enough to throw her into a rage. "It was _your _people that forced me into this!" she screamed back. "Your inferiority, your total disregard for authority. There would _be _no war if your people weren't so pathetic. All the Fire Nation wanted from your people was a little respect, a little obedience. We were thriving when the war started. If you all had just bowed your heads like smart little peasants, I wouldn't be in this position. I wouldn't have had to fight you! I wouldn't have had to kill Mai! And Ty Lee . . ." She faltered. Damn her, but she faltered.

"_I always knew you were a bitch, Azula, but I never thought you'd sink this low."_

"What do you know?" she growled back. The waterbender looked up at her in confusion, and she pretended the comment had been directed at her. "Do you know anything about me, about what _I've _suffered for this war? Do you think I wanted to be born into the world at a time like this? You're not the only one who's lost someone."

Some unfamiliar expression crossed the peasant's ugly face, an expression Azula had only ever seen on people outside the Fire Nation. _What is that? What is that look? _Her eyes narrowed in contempt. _Probably some piddling weakness fostered by the other nations. Nothing I need to be concerned with. _

The dark-skinned barbarian froze the water, holding her against the wall. Azula glared as she spoke. "Of course. I never really thought about it until now, but Zuko said he'd lost his mother. That must mean you lost her, too."

"My mother was a traitor."

The strange look deepened. _Why is she looking at me like that? _There was a word for that look, a word for the emotion that accompanied it, but before she could call it to mind, the waterbender spoke again. "It must have hurt terribly to lose her. I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't been with my mother as long as I was. If I'd grown up here . . ." Her unnatural blue eyes drifted away, to the floor. "Who can say? I might have turned out the same as you."

"You could never be like me," Azula snarled. "Not a lowly peasant like you."

"You broke a little bit inside, when she left."

"She was a _traitor, _she deserved to get banished."

The barbarian looked up. "Banished?"

"Yes, _banished_. What did you think we did with traitors of noble birth? I only wish is that Father had taken her head off like a baseborn traitor."

"So, she might be alive?"

Azula looked at the bitch with exasperation. "What do I care? Gone is gone, and I'm glad she disappeared."

Before the barbarian could respond, the ground shook beneath them. Azula's muscles went rigid, unable to move under the solid ice. Several seconds passed before another, more intense rumble made the palace shudder.

Even as furious as she was, some part of Azula's mind continued to work logically. _The effect was too widespread to be the Dai-Li, and the earthbending brat wouldn't dare shake things so much with half her party was underground. It must be something else. _She closed her eyes, gagging as a trickle of moon blood leaked into her smallclothes. There was enough blood now to leak through the absorbent padding and stain her undergarments. _Damn it all, why did it have to come today? _

_Why am I bleeding so much? _

"Katara!" someone yelled. _Too high-pitched to be my brother. Must be that blind brat. _"We have to get out of here, the volcano's going to explode."

The words echoed hollowly in her mind. _The volcano? I always knew the caldera was still active, but they said it was safe, that all the lava was venting out from the edge of the island. _

Another small quake shook the room. Azula's body went rigid again as she struggled to move within the ice. A few cracks had formed with the percussive shakes, but none that she could exploit. She turned toward the waterbender. "Unfreeze the ice."

Shock crossed the peasant's face. "What?"

"Unfreeze the ice. Now, before the volcano burns us all to bits."

A new voice came from down the hallway, just as the blind brat darted in from one of the corridors. "Katara, _run_. We have to get to Appa."

_Zuko? _"Zuko, make her unfreeze me!"

Her brother emerged from the hallway and cast a bleak glance in her direction.

"You said you would show me mercy if I surrendered. Tell her to unfreeze me." _He has to do it. He's a bleeding heart, just like Uncle. _

He just stood there.

_Why aren't you giving the order? _she wondered, frustrated with his indecision. _At least be man enough to make a choice._

The others had paused now, waiting for him to say something. The walls resonated with another small quake. A picture frame fell from its peg and smashed against the metal floor. "Zuko, do it now!"

In his face, she saw panic, indecision, horror. Slowly, all these seeped away, and his expression cleared, like chalk drawings being wiped away from the blackboard.

He looked up at her, a resolve in his eyes that had been absent a moment ago. "No."

"_No." _The word sent her into a panic like none she'd ever experienced. Her head flailed wildly, while the rest of her body shifted imperceptibly in the little pocket of water melted by her body heat.

"Katara, let's go," Zuko said. The sound of the upset caldera should've swallowed up every noise around her, but still, she heard her brother's words, heard the earthbender's bare feet plodding along the steel floor, heard the tiny cracking noises of the ice around her as she struggled.

"Come _on_, Katara. It's time to leave."

Azula eyes strayed to the pair. The sight was so strange it felt like a dream. Zuko was tugging at the waterbender's arm, trying to get her to move. The dark-skinned girl seemed rooted in place though, staring back at Azula with eyes as clear and blue as the sea.

In the deafening chaos, the waterbender pulled her arm away from Zuko and brought it down in a fluid motion. The ice around her gave way all at once, turning to water. Azula dropped twelve feet to the floor, landing with a jarring impact that send jolts of agony up her broken body.

Three things happened at once. Another picture frame crashed against the floor, sending shards of glass flying everywhere, a dozen Dai-Li agents flooded out from the corridors, flinging fists of rock at the enemies, and Azula felt every muscle of her body tighten, as if she'd been tethered to the ground and had finally been able to break free. She shot up to her feet, blood running out of the wounds she'd received, and pointed in the direction of the waterbender, her face stretching into a twisted smile. "You stupid bitch," she said, as a bolt of lightning tore free from her fingertips.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter Fifty-Two

"_Katara!_"

Zuko could not have said if the cry had originated from him alone. It was so loud, even over the deep rumble of the volcano, that logic dictated it _must _have come from more than one mouth. But even if it had, he knew at once his cry had been the loudest, the most shocked, the most desperate.

The lightning crackled as it left his sister's fingertips, a sinister sizzle like the sound of bacon grease in a frying pan. Seeing Azula's hand move into the striking position, he threw himself forward. As the brilliant blue light left her fingertips, he knew he wouldn't have time to take a proper stance, knew he wouldn't be able to redirect the lightning as he wanted to.

Knew the only way for both of them to survive the blast was to throw himself in front of the bolt in the hopes that she could heal him later.

"Zuko, don't!" Katara yelled, guessing his intentions. Zuko moved to make the final bound, the one that would put him between her and Azula's lightning. He doubted he had ever moved so fast.

The Dai-Li were faster still. Before he could move in front of the waterbender, two stone hands clamped down around his ankles, securing him to the ground. His momentum carried him forward as he fell, and his face slammed into the ground just as the crackling bolt touched Katara. A scream grated against his eardrum, a shocking agony that ripped through his chest like the claws of a beast. Several other screams followed, some the high-pitched shrieks of shock, others the more guttural sounds of pain.

Zuko tilted his head up to look at his beloved. Her singed hair stuck out at all different angles, charged up by the blast. Her sapphire eyes were wide, bloodshot in the extreme. Her clothes seemed to be on fire where she'd been hit, or at least reduced to embers, because tendrils of smoke coiled all around her head, coming from the foul-smelling burn on her chest. But worse than all that was watching her fall, like a forest cleared for industrial resources. There was no resistance, no arms shooting out to break her fall, no reaction at all. She just fell, and hit the ground with a deep thud.

A great numbness overtook him then, and his thoughts moved sluggishly by. _Dead. My Katara is dead. _

The Dai-Li had restrained the others by now, all except Toph, who kept breaking free of the restraints even as she plowed through the metal room. In his stupor, he wasn't sure why she bothered. _It's over. We lost. _

Uncle seemed to recognize that, accepting the rocky restraints without much fanfare. He sat down, head against his knees, waiting.

"Take them to the nearest prison," Azula commanded, her tone giving no indication of the madness Zuko had sensed in her before. _Just the same cold commander she always was._ "I want a chance to interrogate them before they're executed."

He shuddered at the thought of Azula's interrogation, but couldn't bring himself to fight against the tight restraints around his arms and legs. _When did they shackle my wrists? _he wondered idly.

A new voice pierced the air, the only voice besides Katara's—_Oh, Agni, I'll never hear her voice again_—that could've aroused any response in him. "You may let up on the earthquakes now, Dai-Li."

He tilted his head to see his father's face. It was similar to his, or how his had looked before he'd been scarred. The features were handsome, almost effeminate in their shape and curve. The eyes were the gold color of well-bred Fire Nation people. But it was the expression there, the catlike grin mixing with the cold, steely look in his father's eyes, that turned him into a caricature of the man Zuko had once known. This Ozai was nothing more than a demonic illusion of the one who had, so long ago, smiled on Ember Island, who had, before his rule as Fire Lord, been an almost acceptable father figure.

The rumbling beneath them ceased. Some distant part of Zuko's mind realized that the vibrations hadn't been a natural occurrence, but a product of the Dai-Li's careful manipulation of the caldera below to ward their small party of invaders off. _Just a trick. Just like everything in this Agni-forsaken city. _

"Be sure to dispose of any casualties," his father said. "I'd rather not have barbarian corpses stinking up my palace." He chuckled lightly at his joke, giving everyone permission to laugh. They all did, save for their restrained party members. Zuko could see Toph scowling as a few dozen rock fists immobilized all her joints and left her incapable of movement, incapable of escape. Zuko pitied her with the last bits of emotion he hadn't used up on Katara.

They were hoisted up by their bindings, no one daring to get close enough to them even though they were obviously defeated, broken beyond repair.

No one bothered to pick up Katara. Zuko was dragged into the sun with all the ceremony and fanfare of a sack of rice. "Enjoy the light," one of the Dai-Li sneered as he looked up at the bright orb above them. "It'll be the last time you'll ever see the sun."

Azula

"Tend to her wounds," Ozai barked, as two healers swept into the room with a gurney. "I won't have my only heir dying in my palace."

The words leaked through her ears just as blood leaked out of the numerous cuts on her body. Any other day, the words might've struck her as condescending. He was talking about her like an old dog that insisted on lying down beside his bed to take its last breaths. But right now, she just felt a deep numbness spreading through her, starting in her lower abdomen, where she'd been cramping all day. The constant ache faded, spreading icy fingers of emptiness up through her heart, into her limbs and head. "I don't need any assistance," she told the healers when they came close. She would _not _show weakness in front of all these people.

"But princess, your injuries—"

She waved them off, moving to stand. As she did so, she felt a thick glob of moon blood pour out of her. _Sickening, wretched process, _she thought. _I should've been born a man. I certainly have the fortitude of one. _Even as the words passed through her mind, her knees buckled underneath her. The healers leaned forward, to assist her. "I don't need any help," she snarled, face reddening. "I slipped on the . . . I slipped, that's all." She pressed her hand to the floor to help support her, gagging when her palm encountered the sticky red puddle beneath her. She reared up, disgusted, and more blood poured out from inside her, mingling with the blood of her scrapes and cuts.

People were staring now. She glared at all those who dared look at her. About half of them looked away at her glance, while the rest all stared in horrified fascination. "What are you all looking at?" she demanded. "_Stop looking at me._"

They didn't stop looking, though, even as a thick stream of moon blood ran down her thigh. "Damn it all," she cursed aloud.

"Princess, you should not be bleeding so much," one of the healers said.

"Get out of my sight, or I'll put you in the same prison as my brother and uncle." Her body swayed drunkenly, but this time, she managed to stay standing. She staggered down the hall toward her chambers, face flaming every time the little wisps of blood traveled down her thighs. _Fucking thing. _

Each step was a unique agony. The numbness had faded, allowing the cramping to return. It was more forceful now than it had been a few hours ago, and a few hours ago, she'd been shifting uncomfortably in her miniature throne in response to the pain. Every heartbeat sent a pulse of agony through her abdomen, as if someone was cutting apart her organs from within. A few steps down the corridor, she paused, leaning up against a wall for support. Her bloody hand dragged across the metal, making it slippery and causing her to sink down to the floor. She heard voices behind her, calling her name.

_That stupid water tribe bitch, _Azula thought. _She did this to me. She must've cracked my ribs or something. _But the pain was lower than that, closer to her pelvis than her ribs. A distant part of her mind, a part separated from the pain and frustration, realized the healers had been right. She was bleeding a lot more than any moon cycle should've allowed. Even if this was her first, even if she were a naturally heavy bleeder, something wasn't right.

This time, she couldn't get back up. She settled for wrapping her arms around her chest and curling up on the ground. _I'll just rest, _she told herself as the healers hoisted her onto the gurney. Voices were audible, far away, down some distant tunnel.

"She's bleeding out!"

"Get her to the infirmary _now._"

"Don't worry, Princess. Everything will be okay."

_I'll just rest. Just for a little bit. _


	53. Chapter 53

_Author's Note:_

_Hey guys, it's been a great ride. I'm so glad I got to read all your comments, but this is the end of the road. This is the last chapter of _The End of Hope. _The conclusion, the end, the last, lingering words._

_But fear not, my readers! A new story is being written, a sequel worthy of your attention. In a few weeks, I will bring forth a new story to entertain you. It shall carry a similar name, and bring alive the last moments of this story with a new adventure. Fear not the intervening weeks, for this Zutara romance shall rise again from the ashes. And until then, I give you the assurance that this saga will go on until the bitter end._

Chapter Fifty-Three

It flowed in slow spirals around the center of her chest, wrapping around her heart and lungs, repairing damage, knitting tissue and flesh back together. It leaked through the walls of her blood vessels, spreading over the rest of her body even before her face hit the floor.

Katara felt these changes, but didn't move to control them. Her pulse thudded weakly in her ears, the only sound in the room besides Azula's shrieks. After several minutes of chaos, after all the others had shuffled free of the room, the deep thrum of her heartbeat was the only thing she could hear.

Much later, she felt a faint pressure against her neck, followed by a startled gasp. "She's still alive."

These words were followed by the sound of shuffling feet. Whispers, indistinguishable from each other and only identifiable as a whole, broke out across the quiet room, only to be silence a moment later by a command. "Take her to the prison with the others. If she dies on the way, dispose of her."

The word "prison" stirred the barest hint of a reaction from her, and she tried to open her eyes. They remained stubbornly shut. The only part of her that was moving, the only muscle of her body that was functioning at all, was her heart, her lungs. And even that, only just.

She remembered the night she'd cut herself making dinner. She remembered watching the blood flow across the smooth rock, how she'd moved it just like moving water. She remembered how the bleeding cut had healed itself at her command, knitted together by the blood seeping out from the edges. She remembered.

Faces drifted through her mind: her mother, Kya, smiling at her as she set down a bowl of sea prune stew; Sokka, the only one who'd been close enough to her age and situation to understand what she'd felt that whole time; Aang, who through all his own grief and sorrow had given up everything to make the world a better place, given up everything on the pretext of duty, when she was only just now starting to realize the real reasons for his efforts. Toph, Iroh, Ty Lee, Appa, Momo . . . King Bumi, Jet, Master Pakku, the swamp people . . .

Zuko. Zuko, who she loved. Zuko, who had to survive, who had to be free, to end this war.

Someone was carrying her now, holding her like a baby and walking moving out of the room. Even if she'd been able, she wouldn't have opened her eyes. It was better to pretend it was Zuko holding her, carrying her to safety. Better to pretend this was all a nightmare.

Her heart was pumping a little more regularly now. That eased the flow of blood, allowed the rest of her body to start healing. Katara felt the sunlight on her face, saw the orange glow of the light as it filtered through the capillaries in her eyelids. It was almost peaceful.

The arms holding her up set her down on a piece of cloth. "Take her into surgery," someone said. "She'll make a valuable war prisoner."

"Understood."

Katara was carried into the shade on the stretcher. Almost at once, she felt something sharp jab into the crease of her elbow. Her already hazy control slipped away as the painkillers spread through her body. The faraway voices went silent. Only one thing lingered: a face, golden-eyed, beautiful despite the mismatched halves.

The energy kept twisting within her, repairing lesser damage now. Katara pushed through the haze of painkillers, trying to stay conscious as she repaired her body. After a while, the strain of staying awake became too much, and she ceded control to the crushing force.

_While I sleep, _she thought, the last thought that crossed her mind before everything went dark. _will I dream of you, my prince?_

-0-

The sound of approaching footsteps startled him. _It must've been four days since my last visitor, _he thought, wincing at the growling in his stomach. He'd been hungry before, but the hunger had never gnawed at him so intensely, never been so evident in his thoughts.

Yet he scooted toward the edge of the cell, until his back touched the metal wall. Everything was made of metal here, and these walls were so thick, any hope of escape was quickly snuffed out, no matter how ingenious the escape plan was. The last time the guards had come to see him, it hadn't been to bring him nourishment, but to make sure he hadn't died. _"You're too valuable a prisoner to be killed," _they'd said.

He listened closer to the approaching footsteps, unable to ignore them now that they were so close. The feet came down hard on the floor, but moved with the slow deliberation of a tiger-shark. _Just one set of footsteps, _he decided. He wasn't positive, but he thought the guards always traveled in pairs, for safety. _I should be paying more attention to their habits. _

The yawning pit in his stomach seemed to deepen as the possibility of food drew closer. Surely they wouldn't go to all the trouble of keeping him locked up here if they were just going to starve him to death. _But it's already been so long, _he thought, paranoid. _They could just be making sure the earthquake didn't give you any ideas._

He'd felt the rumbling, at the base of the tower. At first, he'd though the building was tumbling over, and he'd panicked, jumping to his feet and hitting his head on the ceiling of his cramped cell. When the aftershocks came with varying force, he realized it was the caldera below him stirring. _Nothing I can stop, _he'd thought. Or perhaps he'd murmured the words. With so little human contact, he'd taken to talking to himself.

Either way, having the caldera swallow him up with the rest of the city would've been fine. There was nothing he could do here, no hope of getting out. All the people who might have been able to get him out were either dead, or busy getting ready for the Day of Black Sun.

"Or did that happen already?" he murmured to himself, so quietly that the close walls didn't echo back a reply. _Maybe _it had. Things had been quiet in the prison these past few days, more subdued than he'd been expecting. Of course, in his cell, time lost all meaning. It could've been day or night, summer or winter, before the eclipse or after, and he had no way to tell.

Beyond the thick metal walls, he heard the unmistakable jingle of keys. He opened his eyes and stared the door, wishing more than anything he had the same power as the one outside—the power to open the door.

The Fire Nation was not much inclined to light their prison cells, so the flood of torchlight, however dim it might've appeared to him before he'd been thrown in here, blinded him for a few seconds. All he could see through the glare was a silhouette. A thick curtain of hair hung off the sides of his visitor's head, and the shape of the silhouette's body was masculine, muscled but not intensely so. _No helmet. No armor. Not a guard._

He squinted into the torchlight. After a few fuzzy moments, the features of the man cleared up and, even though he'd never met the monster in person, he knew immediately who he was staring at. "What do _you _want?" he asked, only daring to be so defiant when he saw that his visitor had no food for him.

Fire Lord Ozai chuckled. "Defiant to the very end, aren't you, Avatar Aang?"


End file.
